ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A gun bloodbath of vacationers on April 22 has pushed India and Pakistan a step nearer to warfare, marking the largest breakdown in relations since 2019.
Battle between India and Pakistan shouldn’t be uncommon, with the 2 international locations having periodically engaged in wars, clashes and skirmishes since gaining independence from British India in 1947.
What’s totally different about this escalation is the frequency and depth of strikes and retaliation.
Though the U.S. had mentioned it will not step in, it’s now providing help in “beginning constructive talks” between India and Pakistan to keep away from future conflicts. However requires restraint from the worldwide group have but to make an impression.
Right here’s a timeline of how the most recent battle has unfolded:
Gunmen shoot and kill at the least 26 vacationers at a Pahalgam resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, a significant shift in a regional battle that has largely spared civilians. The unidentified gunmen additionally wound 17 different folks. A bunch known as Kashmir Resistance, which India accuses Pakistan of backing, claims the assault.
Survivors inform The Related Press that gunmen requested folks in the event that they had been Hindu after which opened fireplace.
India downgrades diplomatic ties, closes the one practical land border crossing, and suspends a vital water-sharing treaty that has survived two wars and a significant border skirmish between the 2 international locations.
India launches a manhunt for the Pahalgam assailants. Pakistan denies involvement with the assault.
India and Pakistan cancel visas for one another’s nationals, setting a deadline for them to depart. In retaliation, Pakistan shuts its airspace for all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airways, and suspends all commerce with India, together with to and from any third nation.
Authorities ministers on each side trace the dispute might escalate to army motion.
India says its troops exchanged fireplace with Pakistani troopers on the Line of Management, the de facto border dividing the disputed Kashmir area.
Pakistan warns it might droop an settlement that established the Line of Management, in what could be a significant and worrying step. The United Nations urges each side to “train most restraint.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vows his authorities will reply “with full power and may” to Indian makes an attempt to cease or divert the circulation of water.
Iran provides mediation, whereas Trump says he expects them to work out their variations. “There’s nice pressure between Pakistan and India, however there all the time has been,” he tells reporters aboard Air Power One.
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir briefly shut dozens of resorts within the scenic Himalayan area after the lethal assault on vacationers.
Troops from each international locations trade fireplace over the Line of Management for a fifth consecutive night time.
Pakistan’s Info Minister Attaullah Tarar says his authorities has “credible intelligence” that India intends to hold out army motion towards Pakistan within the subsequent 24 to 36 hours.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls senior officers in India and Pakistan in an effort to defuse the disaster. U.S. State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce says Rubio in his name with India expressed sorrow over the killings in Pahalgam and reaffirmed the U.S.’s “dedication to cooperation with India towards terrorism.”
Pakistan says Rubio emphasised the necessity for each side to “proceed working collectively for peace and stability” in South Asia.
Pakistan test-fires a ballistic missile with a spread of 450 kilometers (about 280 miles). Missiles will not be fired towards the border space with India; they’re usually fired into the Arabian Sea or the deserts of the southwest Balochistan province.
India suspends the trade of all mail from Pakistan by way of air and floor routes and bans the direct and oblique import of products from its neighbor. It additionally bars Pakistani-flagged ships from getting into its ports and prohibits Indian-flagged vessels from visiting Pakistani ports.
India fires missiles on Pakistan, which calls the strikes an “act of warfare” and vows to avenge those that died within the pre-dawn assault.
The missiles kill 31 folks, together with ladies and youngsters, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the nation’s Punjab province. The strikes focused at the least 9 websites “the place terrorist assaults towards India have been deliberate,” says India’s Protection Ministry.
Pakistan claims it downed a number of Indian fighter jets.
India fires assault drones into Pakistan, killing at the least two civilians, the Pakistani army says. India, in the meantime, accuses its neighbor of making an attempt its personal assault and acknowledges concentrating on its archrival’s air protection system.
India evacuates hundreds of individuals from villages close to the extremely militarized frontier within the Kashmir area. Flights stay suspended at over two dozen airports throughout northern and western areas of India.
Pakistan’s Punjab province proclaims the fast closure of all colleges and different instructional establishments.
India suspends its greatest home cricket match for per week following the escalating army tensions with Pakistan. Pakistan initially says it would transfer its personal home T20 match to the United Arab Emirates due to the disaster, however then says it would solely postpone matches.
A number of northern and western Indian states shut colleges and different instructional establishments.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance says a possible warfare between India and Pakistan could be “none of our enterprise.”
India’s military says drones have been sighted in 26 areas throughout many areas in Indian states bordering Pakistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir, together with the primary metropolis of Srinagar. The drones had been tracked and engaged, it provides.
The Group of Seven nations, or G7, urge “most restraint” from each India and Pakistan, warning that additional army escalation poses a severe menace to regional stability.
Pakistan says India has fired missiles at air bases contained in the nation and that retaliatory strikes are underway. The Indian missiles focused Nur Khan air base within the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, close to the capital Islamabad, Murid air base in Chakwal metropolis, and Rafiqui air base within the Jhang district of jap Punjab province, in accordance with the Pakistani military’s chief spokesperson.
Pakistan says it has fired missiles at Indian army positions.
Residents in Indian-controlled Kashmir report listening to loud explosions at a number of locations within the area, together with Srinagar, Jammu, and the garrison city of Udhampur.