Kashmir attack spikes tensions between India and Pakistan

Gunmen killed at least 26 people at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, sharply increasing tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi.

India blamed a Pakistan-linked terror group for the attack, which drew international condemnation, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short a planned trip to Saudi Arabia.

India’s defence minister vowed Wednesday that the perpetrators would “very soon hear our response, loud and clear,” AFP reported.

Islamabad said it had no knowledge of the strike, the deadliest such attack in India since the November 2008 killings in Mumbai that reduced bilateral ties to historic lows.

“Over the coming days and weeks, the sheer horror of the Pahalgam attacks will wash over India,” one conservative Indian writer noted. “For Modi this is a moment of truth.”