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Fears over a war between India and Pakistan are brewing after at least 26 people, mostly vacationing Hindu pilgrims and tourists, were killed in a shooting in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday. The Context The victims were in a bus, traveling from Shiv Khori temple to Katra, that veered off the road and plunged into a deep gorge after gunmen opened fire on the vehicle. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan, calling the attack "cross-border terrorism" and has taken measures that include closing the main land border between the two countries, withdrawing visas for Pakistanis and ordering all Pakistani nationals to leave the country, except remaining diplomats.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said those responsible would be punished "to the ends of the Earth." Pakistan has denied responsibility, with Defense Minister Khawaja Asif telling Sky News that India had "staged" the attack in a "false flag" operation. People burn Pakistani flags during a protest against the killing of tourists by militants near Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Kashmir, in Guwahati, India, on April 24, 2025.
People burn Pakistani flags during a protest against the killing of tourists by militants near Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Kashmir, in Guwahati, India, on April 24, 2025. AP Are India And Pakistan Headed For War? Asif issued several warnings in the interview, saying Islamabad will "measure our response to whatever is initiated by India."
"If there is an all-out attack or something like that, then obviously there will be an all-out war," he said. "If things get wrong, there could be a tragic outcome of this confrontation." He then called on the world, especially U.S. President Donald Trump as the person who "leads the world power," to intervene to bring "some sort of sanity to the situation" as India and Pakistan are both nuclear powers.
"Otherwise, if there is an initiative by India, we'll respond in kind. We will not have any option, have absolutely no option," Asif said. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh vowed to respond to the attack at the Marshal of the Air Force on Wednesday, saying: "We will not only reach out to those who have carried out this incident.
We will also reach out to those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such nefarious acts on the soil of India. The people responsible for such acts will get a befitting reply in the near future." Walter Ladwig, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank and senior lecturer at King's College London, told Newsweek: "Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and strikes between the two nuclear-armed states are serious.
It's something we've got to worry about." Senior officials in charge of nuclear capabilities in both countries are competent, but there is "always the chance of mistakes," Ladwig added. Russia has repeatedly alluded to nuclear weapons' use since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and North Korea has forged ahead with its missile and nuclear development programs.
The secretive country's leader, Kim Jong-Un, said last year that Pyongyang would use nuclear weapons to annihilate South Korea if Seoul launched an attack north of the border. Military historian Srinath Raghavan, a senior research fellow at the India Institute at King's College London, said he expects a "strong response…one that signals resolve to both domestic audiences and actors in Pakistan." "Since 2016 and especially after 2019, the threshold for retaliation has been set at cross-border or air strikes," he told the BBC.
"It'll be hard for the government to act below that now. Pakistan will likely respond, as it did before. The risk, as always, is miscalculation—on both sides."
In 2016, New Delhi launched strikes on what it said were military launch pads in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in response to an attack in Uri where 29 Indian soldiers were killed. In 2019, India carried out airstrikes on what it said was a militant camp in Balakot, after at least 40 paramilitary personnel were killed in Pulwama. The Background India and Pakistan have been locked in conflict over Kashmir since both nations gained independence from Britain in 1947.
They both claim Kashmir as their own, but in reality, each controls different parts of the territory. The dispute has triggered three wars—1947, 1965 and 1999—as well as numerous skirmishes and ongoing border tensions. A Line of Control, heavily militarized on both sides, divides the Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered parts of Kashmir.
Over the decades, a separatist insurgency also took hold in Indian-administered Kashmir, leading to tens of thousands of deaths. Pakistan maintains that it supports Kashmiris' right to self-determination, while India accuses its neighbor of backing militants operating across the border, a claim Pakistan denies. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei strongly condemned the massacre and expressed sympathy with the victims' families.
He reiterated Iran's "principled position" of opposing all forms of terrorism and urged stronger regional cooperation to "prosecute and punish the perpetrators of such terrorist acts." What People Are Saying U.S. President Donald Trump, on Truth Social: "Deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against Terrorism.
We pray for the souls of those lost, and for the recovery of the injured. Prime Minister Modi, and the incredible people of India… ."
U.S. Vice President JD Vance: "Usha and I extend our condolences to the victims of the devastating terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India. Over the past few days, we have been overcome with the beauty of this country and its people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific attack."
The Iranian Embassy in India and Foreign Ministry in Tehran, in a statement: "[The attack was a] heinous terrorist crime [that] contradicts all human rights norms."
