The U.S. and India-Pakistan War of Action after the Kashmir War: Vance, Rubio, and the Crisis Group

MUMBAI India — Vice President Vance said that the current escalation between India and Pakistan was “fundamentally none of our business,” as they traded blows overnight Thursday and early Friday evening using drones and projectiles, reaching places that have not been targeted in decades on either side.

The Trump administration was asked by Fox News if they were worried about nuclear conflict. We can’t control these countries, but we want this thing to stop as quickly as possible.

“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of a war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it.”

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Rubio continued to urge both parties to “find ways to deescalate and offered U.S. assistance in starting constructive talks” in order to avoid future conflicts.

Donthi, of the Crisis Group, said Vance’s comments suggested that Washington may be sympathetic to India’s grievances, which “seems to have come to the conclusion that letting this play out a bit more is actually contributing to that effort to confront the threat of terror.”

Vance’s comments signaled a more hands-off foreign policy, said Arifa Noor, a columnist for the liberal newspaper Dawn. Washington worked to dial down tensions in previous escalations.

She believes that there isn’t a way that the US can step into this vacuum and talk the two countries off the ledge. She described them as two nuclear powers that were inherently unstable.

The current round of tensions began after gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, in Indian-administered Kashmir in late April. India insisted the gunmen were proxies for the Pakistani military. Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack.

Pakistan said India launched missiles at three air bases in Pakistan on Saturday but most of the missiles were shot down and the strikes against India were underway. It’s the latest escalation in a conflict triggered by a massacre last month that India blames on Pakistan.

There were two projectiles that landed in the city of Okara on Friday. Residents filmed one careering to the ground, spinning across a field while emitting plumes of smoke as young men dashed out of the way. Two people independently described the incident to NPR, but both needed to keep their identities confidential because they did not want to anger Pakistan.

“There were dozens of fireballs in the sky,” said Gowher Ahmad, 43, of Jammu city, of the overnight barrage. Friday was quiet, but Ahmad said he feared the night.

A Kashmiri preacher, a Muslim, and a Srinagar resident whose children are explosives in a Kashmiri village

Most of the 10,000 people from the border village of Ajote have fled, according to Jaspreet Kaur. “The rest of us are huddled up in the basement of a three-story building,” she said. Karamat Hussain, from another border village, Khari, said many residents couldn’t flee, because they had to care for their livestock, like his elderly parents.

As violence continues, India appears to be cracking down more intently on critics. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a prominent Kashmiri preacher who advocates independence for the territory, said on X that he was not allowed to attend communal Muslim Friday prayers in Indian-held Kashmir. He uploaded a video of his previous Friday sermon to his website and urged both countries to de-escalate and not to tread on this dangerous path which can only lead to destruction.

The X social media network said it received “executive orders” from the Indian government to block over 8,000 accounts including news organizations. Anuradha Bhasin is a prominent Kashmir-based journalist and The Wire is an independent news site in New Delhi. Indian authorities did not respond to requests for comment.

Srinagar appeared calm early Saturday but some residents in neighborhoods close to the city’s airport, which is also an air base, said they were rattled by the explosions and booming sound of fighter jets.

“I was already awake but my kids woke me up because of the explosions.” Srinagar resident Mohammed Yasin said that he heard at least two explosions.

The India-Pakistan War and the Security of the Middle East: A Crisis Group Analysis of a Joint Army-Second Army and Air Force Action

The two countries are at war, even if they haven’t yet called them that, according to a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group for India.

Donthi said that the race for military one-upmanship has become a remorseless race with no apparent strategic end goals. Increasing civilian casualties on both sides will make finding an exit or off-ramp difficult.

There were drones seen in 26 places across Indian states that border Pakistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Indian army said. It said the drones were tracked and engaged.

People in major cities of Pakistan chanted slogans in support of the armed forces after the civil aviation authority shut the country’s airports for all flight operations.

The Group of Seven nations, or G7, urged “maximum restraint” from India and Pakistan. It said that the military situation was a serious threat to regional stability.

Pakistan’s military had said it used medium-range Fateh missiles to hit an Indian missile storage facility and air bases in the cities of Pathankot and Udhampur. Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif said the country’s air force assets were safe after the Indian assault.

Army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said Pakistan’s air force assets were safe following the Indian strikes, adding that some of the Indian missiles also hit India’s eastern Punjab.

The National Command Authority, a body that oversees the country’s missile program and other strategic assets, has a meeting convened by the Prime Minister.

There was a call for calm before Indian missile strikes on Saturday which targeted an air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, as well as two other bases in the eastern Punjab province.

There wasn’t media access to the air base in a populated city, and there were no reports of residents hearing any of the effects of the strike.

Within hours of the agreement, Srinagar and Jammu in Indian-controlled Kashmir were without power. There were no reports of casualties.

“Explosions that we are hearing today are different from the ones we heard the last two nights during drone attacks,” said Shesh Paul Vaid, the region’s former top police official and Jammu resident. “It looks like a war here.”

India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire: a moment of national pride and relief for the citizens of Pakistan after the April 22 attack

Donald Trump said on his social media platform that India and Pakistan had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire. Thank you for your interest in this matter!

India’s military held a press conference in New Delhi where it said that Pakistan had targeted health facilities and schools in Kashmir.

Tensions have soared since the attack at a popular tourist site in Indian-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, on April 22.

The moment of national pride and relief that came after days of tension, was a moment of joy for the citizens of Pakistan.

Since gaining independence from the British in 1947, India and Pakistan have engaged in skirmishes and wars, which is not uncommon.

Both countries will stop all military action on land and in the air and sea after the head of military operations spoke Saturday afternoon, according to Misri.

The prime minister of Pakistan said Saturday that his country has agreed to a ceasefire and hoped that it would lead to an end to the dispute over the Kashmir region.

“We believe that any issues in the smooth implementation of the ceasefire should be addressed through communication at appropriate levels,” the ministry said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry blamed the Indian forces for the ceasefire violation. The ministry said Pakistan remains committed to the agreement and its forces were handling the situation with responsibility and restraint.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said late Saturday that “there had been repeated violations of the understanding arrived between the two countries” and accused Pakistan of breaching the agreement.