ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday voiced concern over the killing of civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir, after at least 26 people were gunned down by unidentified assailants at a tourist site in the region’s deadliest attack on non-combatants in decades.
The shooting occurred Tuesday afternoon in Pahalgam, a popular resort town in the Anantnag district, when armed men emerged from forest cover and opened fire on crowds of mostly domestic tourists.
Indian officials said the attack bore the hallmarks of an organized militant assault, though no group claimed responsibility for it. Survivors described a calculated and prolonged attack, with gunmen selectively targeting men and sparing women.
“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives in an attack in Anantnag district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the foreign office of Pakistan said in a statement.
“We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” it added.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short a state visit to Saudi Arabia in response, called the attack a “heinous act” and pledged that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
Such attacks have historically strained ties between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed rivals with a long-standing dispute over Kashmir. In 2019, a suicide bombing in Pulwama killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel and triggered cross-border air strikes, pushing the neighbors to the brink of war.
New Delhi has repeatedly blamed Islamabad for backing militant groups operating in the region, an allegation Pakistan denies, insisting it supports only the political aspirations of Kashmiris.
On Wednesday, India’s army also reported killing two gunmen in a separate incident near the Line of Control, the de facto border separating the Pakistani and Indian sides of Kashmir, in Baramulla district, describing it as a foiled infiltration attempt.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1947, with both countries claiming it in full. A violent separatist insurgency has simmered in the Indian-administered part since the late 1980s, although militant violence had declined in recent years.
Tuesday’s attack has also promoted global reaction, with US President Donald Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen condemning the violence and pledging support for India in pursuing the assailants.
Pakistan says ‘concerned’ as gunmen kill 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir
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Pakistan says ‘concerned’ as gunmen kill 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir
- The incident happened in Pahalgam where unidentified assailants gunned down mostly domestic tourists
- Such attacks have historically strained ties between the two nuclear rivals, pushing them close to war
Pakistan urges world to treat water insecurity as global risk, flags India treaty suspension
- Pakistan says it is strengthening water management but national action alone is insufficient
- India unilaterally suspended Indus Waters Treaty last year, leading to irregular river flows
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday urged the international community to recognize water insecurity as a “systemic global risk,” warning that disruptions in shared river basins threaten food security, livelihoods and regional stability, as it criticized India’s handling of transboundary water flows.
The call comes amid heightened tensions after India’s unilateral decision last year to hold the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance,” a move Islamabad says has undermined predictability in river flows and compounded climate-driven vulnerabilities downstream.
“Across regions, water insecurity has become a systemic risk, affecting food production, energy systems, public health, livelihoods and human security,” Pakistan’s Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, told a UN policy roundtable on global water stress.
“For Pakistan, this is a lived reality,” he said, describing the country as a climate-vulnerable, lower-riparian state facing floods, droughts, accelerated glacier melt, groundwater depletion and rapid population growth, all of which are placing strain on already stressed water systems.
Jadoon said Pakistan was strengthening water resilience through integrated planning, flood protection, irrigation rehabilitation, groundwater replenishment and ecosystem restoration, including initiatives such as Living Indus and Recharge Pakistan, but warned that domestic measures alone were insufficient.
He noted the Indus River Basin sustains one of the world’s largest contiguous irrigation systems, provides more than 80 percent of Pakistan’s agricultural water needs and supports the livelihoods of over 240 million people.
The Pakistani diplomat said the Indus Waters Treaty had for decades provided a framework for equitable water management, but India’s decision to suspend its operation, followed by unannounced flow disruptions and the withholding of hydrological data, had created an unprecedented challenge for Pakistan’s water security.
Pakistan has said the treaty remains legally binding and does not permit unilateral suspension or modification.
The issue has gained urgency as Pakistan continues to recover from last year’s monsoon floods, which killed more than 1,000 people and devastated farmland in Punjab, the country’s eastern breadbasket, in what officials described as severe riverine flooding.
Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said Pakistan had observed abrupt variations in river flows from India, creating uncertainty for farmers in Punjab during critical periods of the agricultural cycle.
“As we move toward the 2026 UN Water Conference, Pakistan believes the process must acknowledge water insecurity as a systemic global risk, place cooperation and respect for international water law at the center of shared water governance, and ensure that commitments translate into real protection for vulnerable downstream communities,” Jadoon said.
