Both India and Iran have warned of strong responses to the attacks, which they blame on militant networks based in Pakistan.
Kashmir attack on Indian paramilitary forces
Forty-four members of India’s paramilitary police were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in the disputed region of Kashmir on Thursday.
The Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack, which was carried out by a 22-year-old man who was born in Indian Kashmir.
The group released a video that appeared to show the attacker condemning India for atrocities against Kashmiri Muslims.
In recent years, the Indian military has increasingly been accused of using excessive force and unlawful killings to curtail the insurgency in Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority state.
Jaish-e-Mohammed militants previously stormed an Indian army camp in 2016, killing 20 soldiers. Weeks later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered “surgical strikes” on militant camps in the Pakistani side of Kashmir.
India has long accused Pakistan of sponsoring terrorist attacks by Jaish-e-Mohammed and other militant groups, with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) suspected with helping create the group, as detailed by the Mapping Militants Project at Stanford University.
The group’s leader Masood Azhar remains at large in Pakistan, with the country refusing India’s demands to extradite him. Pakistan’s ally China has blocked India’s efforts to have Azhar designated a global terrorist at the United Nations Security Council.
Following Thursday’s attack, Modi said India would deliver a “befitting reply” to Pakistan, which has denied any involvement in the attack.
India responded by withdrawing trade privileges granted to Pakistan under World Trade Organization rules, the country’s Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley said. He added that diplomatic steps were being taken “to ensure the complete isolation from international community of Pakistan.”
