Pakistan said on Wednesday it had “reliable intelligence” and India could launch a military strike on it in the next few days.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of security meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, adding to speculation that the upcoming Indian military operation was carried out against its competitors, with 26 people killed after India assisted the attack on tourists in Pahalgam, an auxiliary Kashmir.
Since the attack, fewer existing relations between nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors have risen further, which have shrunk their diplomatic participation, suspended their participation in bilateral treaties and effectively expelled each other's citizens.
The subcontinent is on the brink. But what might this be like when India’s reaction to the Pahargam killing is coming? This is what history tells us:
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a television statement earlier Wednesday that Islamabad has "credible intelligence" and that India is planning military action against Pakistan in the "next 24 to 36 hours."
Tarar added that the action would be a response from India to Pahalgam's "excuses for the unfounded and concocting allegations of intervention". Despite India's claims that Pakistan was involved in the Pahargam attack, Islamabad denied the claim.
India and Pakistan each manage part of Kashmir, but both countries claim that the territory is complete.
According to anonymous senior government sources, Tarar's statement comes a day after Modi responded to the Pahargam attack on India's military "complete freedom of combat" during a closed-door meeting with the country's security leaders.
Modi chaired a cabinet security conference committee on Wednesday, the second meeting since the Pahalgam attack, according to the National Doordarshan TV.
Meanwhile, other world leaders have stepped up diplomacy to calm tensions as neighbors continue to exchange gunfire along the Line of Control (LOC) that controls India and Pakistan-managed Kashmir.
"We are in touch with both sides and telling … they don't escalate the situation," a State Department spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had spoken with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and helped "degradation".
While it is not clear what action India can do, a range of military tactics have been employed in the past. Here are some of them:
By design, they were not announced - nor were they confirmed. But over the past few decades, India and Pakistan each launched several secret raids to be controlled by each other, targeting military posts, killing soldiers and sometimes beheading enemy troops.
These strikes are usually carried out by military forces as a step of revenge, which has been previously attacked in retribution.
But this raid has never been confirmed: the idea is to send a message to another country, but don't force it to respond, thus including the risk of escalation. Public announcements have led to pressure from the domestic counterattack against the government.
But sometimes, the idea is not to send subtle messages, but to embarrass another country by publicly attacking. It won't hurt politically, either.
India has conducted so-called surgical strikes on the entire LOC in the past - recently in 2016.
Then, after armed fighters killed 17 Indian soldiers in Uri, the Indian army's special forces crossed the de facto border and attacked the "launched platform" in New Delhi, which said the "terrorists" planned to attack India again. "These operations are basically centralized to ensure that these terrorists do not successfully design infiltration and endanger the lives of our citizens," Lt. Ranbir Singh, then head of the Indian Army's military operations, said in a public statement.
India claims that the surgical strike killed dozens of combatants, although independent analysts believe the losses may be much lower.
In February 2019, a suicide bomber killed 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in Indian-managed Kashmir in the country’s weeks before the national elections held in the country. The attack was claimed by Pakistan's armed group Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Amid an outbreak of anger, the Indian Air Force launched an air raid on Pakistan-managed Kashmir. India claims it attacked the hiding place of the "terrorists" and killed dozens of warriors.
Pakistan insists that the Indian jets hit only one forest area and did not kill any fighter planes. Islamabad claims it fired the planes and recovered the Indian planes back to the entire LOC.
But a day later, India and Pakistan fighters fought another battle - the battle ended with Pakistan falling down an Indian plane in its controlled territory. An Indian fighter pilot was arrested and returned a few days later.
In the past few years, India has increasingly called on New Delhi to reclaim Pakistan-managed Kashmir. This chorus has been sharp in recent days after the Pahargam attack, and even leaders of the opposition Congress party have dabbled in the Modi government to retake the territory.
Recapture of Pakistan-managed Kashmir remains a policy goal for every Indian government, but the close matching military capabilities of both sides make such an effort impossible.
Nevertheless, India is still successfully obtaining records of disputed territory from Pakistan.
In 1984, the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force launched Operation Megdot, where they quickly captured the Siakic Glacier in the Himalayas and prevented Pakistani troops from entering the key pass. Siochin is one of the largest non-polar glaciers in the world and has since been the highest battlefield on Earth, with Indian and Pakistani military outposts facing each other.
The Indian Navy announced a test missile strike after the Pahalgam attack.
"The Indian Navy fleet conducted multiple counterattack shots to re-estimate and prove that the platform, system and crew are ready for a long-range precise offensive strike," the Navy said in a statement on April 27.
“The Indian Navy is ready to safeguard the national maritime interests, reliable and future battles anytime, anywhere.”
Many analysts believe that the experiment is a strength, pointing out that the Indian Navy has the ability to order a strike on Pakistani territory.
India and Pakistan fought four wars in 78 years of independent existence. Three of these armed conflicts have surpassed Kashmir.
Two months after the British colonial government left the subcontinent in August 1947, carving it to India and Pakistan, neighbors fought the first war against Kashmir and then ruled by the king.
Pakistani militia invade Kashmir to try to control. King Hari Singh seeks help from India. New Delhi agreed and joined the war against Pakistan, on condition that Singh signed the joining tool and merged Kashmir with India. The king agreed.
The war finally ended on January 1, 1949, and a ceasefire agreement was reached. Since then, India and Pakistan have occupied a portion of it in Kashmir.
In 1965, conflicts between border forces escalated into a mature war. Pakistani troops crossed the ceasefire and entered Indian-managed Kashmir, while Indian troops crossed the international border into Pakistan's Lahore and launched an attack. A UN Security Council resolution helped neighbors end the war after thousands of casualties on both sides.
In 1971, Pakistan and India were involved in an armed conflict in East Pakistan and helped liberate the territory, leading to the establishment of Bangladesh. In 1972, the two countries signed the Simla Agreement to establish LOC.
In 1999, the Pakistani army crossed Loc, triggering the Kagill War. Indian troops pushed Pakistani soldiers back after bloody battles in the snowy highlands in the Ladakh region.