Pakistan says it has 'credible intelligence' India will attack within
days
[April 30, 2025]
By PRABHJOT GILL and SHEIKH SAALIQ
ATTARI, India (AP) — Pakistan said Wednesday it had “credible
intelligence” that India is planning to attack it within days, as
Pakistani nationals headed for the border to comply with New Delhi's
orders to almost all Pakistani citizens to leave the country following
last week’s deadly attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
An attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir and India’s moves to
punish Pakistan — which denies any connection to the massacre — have
driven tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to their highest point
since 2019, when the two sides came close to war after a suicide car
bombing in Kashmir.
Early Wednesday, Pakistan said it had “credible intelligence” that India
intends to carry out military action against it in the “next 24-36 hours
on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in
the Pahalgam incident.”
There was no immediate comment from Indian officials. Indian government
officials said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “given complete
operational freedom to the armed forces to decide on the mode, targets
and timing of India’s response to the Pahalgam massacre,” speaking on
condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in separate phone
calls with India and Pakistan, stressed the need to “avoid a
confrontation that could result in tragic consequences.” The U.S. State
Department also called for de-escalation and said that Secretary of
State Marco Rubio would be speaking soon to the Indian and Pakistani
foreign ministers.
The deadline for Pakistani citizens to leave India — with exceptions for
those who are on medical visas in India — passed on Sunday, but many
families were still scrambling to the border crossing in Attari town in
northern Punjab state to cross into Pakistan.
Some were arriving on their own and others were being deported by
police.
“We have settled our families here. We request the government not to
uproot our families,” said Sara Khan, a Pakistani national who was
ordered back to Pakistan without her husband, Aurangzeb Khan, who holds
an Indian passport.
Waiting on the Indian side of the border crossing, Khan carried her
14-day-old child in her arms. She said Indian authorities did not give
her any time to recuperate from a caesarean section and that her
long-term visa was valid until July 2026.
“They (authorities) told me you are illegal and you should go,” said
Khan, who has been living in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 2017. “They
gave us no time. I could not even change my shoes.”
Tensions between rivals India and Pakistan have escalated after gunmen
killed 26 people, most of them Indian tourists, near the resort town of
Pahalgam in disputed Kashmir.
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An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard at a temporary
checkpoint in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, April
30, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
The massacre set off tit-for-tat diplomatic measures between India
and Pakistan that included cancellation of visas and a recall of
diplomats. New Delhi also suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty
with Islamabad and ordered its border shut with Pakistan. In
response, Pakistan has closed its airspace to Indian airlines.
Cross-border exchanges of gunfire between Indian and Pakistani
soldiers have also increased along the Line of Control, the de facto
frontier that separates Kashmiri territory between the two rivals.
India has blamed Pakistan for backing the massacre. Pakistan has
denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a
previously unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir
Resistance.
At least three tourists who survived the massacre told The
Associated Press that the gunmen singled out Hindu men and shot them
from close range. The dead included a Nepalese citizen and a local
Muslim pony ride operator.
Aishanya Dwivedi, whose husband was killed in the massacre, said a
gunman approached the couple and challenged him to recite the
Islamic declaration of faith. Her husband replied that he was Hindu,
and the attacker shot him “point blank in the head,” she said.
“He was on my lap. I was soaked in his blood,” Dwivedi told AP over
the phone from her home in the Indian city of Kanpur.
Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in
its entirety. New Delhi describes all militancy in Indian-controlled
Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies this, and many
Muslim Kashmiris consider the militants to be part of a home-grown
freedom struggle.
Meanwhile, India’s cabinet committee on security, headed by Modi,
met on Wednesday. It was their second such meeting since the attack.
___
Saaliq reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed
in Islamabad and Rajesh Roy in New Delhi contributed to this report.
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