By Fayaz Bukhari and Shivam Patel
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – India said on Monday it had responded to ‘unprovoked’ small arms firing from Pakistan along the de facto border for the fourth consecutive night, as it deepens its search for militants in the region following last week’s deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir.
After the April 22 attack that killed 26 people, India has identified two of the three suspected militants as Pakistani, although Islamabad has denied any role and called for a neutral probe.
Security officials and survivors have said the militants segregated the men at the site, a meadow in the Pahalgam area, asked their names and targeted Hindus before shooting them at close range.
The attack triggered outrage and grief in Hindu-majority India, along with calls for action against Islamic Pakistan, whom New Delhi accuses of funding and encouraging terrorism in Kashmir, a region both nations claim and have fought two wars over.
The nuclear-armed nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with India putting the critical Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines.
China, a key player in the region, said on Monday it hoped India and Pakistan will exercise restraint and welcomed all measures that will help cool down the situation.
The Indian Army said it had responded to “unprovoked” small arms fire from multiple Pakistan Army posts around midnight on Sunday along the 740-km (460-mile) de facto border separating the Indian and Pakistani areas of Kashmir. It gave no further details and reported no casualties.
The Pakistani military did not respond to a request for comment.
In a separate statement, the Pakistan army said it has killed 71 Islamist militants who were trying to enter the country from the Afghanistan border to the west in the last three days.
PEOPLE DETAINED
India’s defence forces have conducted several military exercises across the country since the attack. Some of these are routine preparedness drills, a defence official said.
Security forces have detained around 500 people for questioning after they searched nearly 1,000 houses and forests hunting for militants in Indian Kashmir, a local police official told Reuters on Monday.
At least nine houses have been demolished so far, the official added.
Political leaders in the state have called for caution to ensure the innocent are not harmed in the government’s actions against terrorism after the deadliest incident of its kind in India in nearly two decades.
“This is the first time in 26 years that I have seen people coming out in this way…to say we are not with this attack,” Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the legislature.
“It (militancy) will finish when people are with us, and today it seems like people are getting there,” he said.
Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front, said in a post on X that it “unequivocally” denied involvement in last week’s attack, after an initial message that claimed responsibility.
The group, considered an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba by a Delhi-based think tank, blamed a ‘cyber intrusion’ for the previous social media post that claimed responsibility.
Villagers living near the border in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir said the exchange of fire between the two militaries did not worry them.
“We have grown up in a war-like situation, so fear does not exist in our lexicon,” said Shaukat Awan, a social activist from Lanjot near the border.
At Keran, a village that is on the border, tourists coming from elsewhere in Pakistan continued to flock to its riverside.
“We have brought a message of love here. People of Kashmir are cheerful and loving. Despite tensions, there is no fear,” said Raza Naqvi, a tourist from Sind province.
(Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari and Shivam Patel in Srinagar, Tariq Maqbool in Muzaffarabad, additional reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi, writing by Tanvi Mehta)
