India’s allegations against Pakistan ‘without any evidence’: Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday India “levelled allegations against Pakistan without any evidence” after New Delhi accused Pakistani spy agency of involvement in last week’s deadly attack on security forces in the disputed region of Kashmir.

“You accused the Pakistani government without providing any evidence, or saying what Pakistan stands to gain from this,” Khan said on Tuesday in a recorded statement.

The Pakistani prime minister said his government was ready to cooperate with India on the Kashmir attack investigation.

More than 40 Indian soldiers were killed in the suicide attack in Pulwama district, ratcheting up tensions with its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.

“I am offering: if you want any kind of investigations … we are ready,” Khan said.

“If you have any actionable intelligence, give it to us, I guarantee that we will take action. And we will take action not because of [external] pressure, but because these people would be enemies of Pakistan. If anyone is acting from Pakistani soil, they are harming us.”

The Pakistan prime minister said his country was “ready to talk” with India over “terrorism”.

“… this is a new Pakistan … and it is in our interest not to allow anyone from Pakistan to go abroad and carry out attacks…”

“If Pakistan was doing such an important conference and visit … what fool would sabotage their own conference and visit like this?” he said referring to the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

India blames ISI

A top military commander in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of “controlling” the attack claimed by Pakistan-based armed group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

“It was being controlled from across by ISI and Pakistan and JeM commanders,” Indian Lieutenant-General KJS Dhillon said at a press conference in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir state.

India has said it has “incontrovertible evidence” of Pakistani involvement in the attack – the worst in more than two decades.

“Whether Pakistan’s spy agency directly handled the JeM group… definitely needs further investigation. The terror leaders are based in Pakistan and they have taken responsibility,” Happymon Jacob, a professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Al Jazeera.

“Today, India has made a very clear allegation against the Pakistan establishment. There is no avoiding an escalation of tensions now,” he said.

Jacob said that India should have “opened back-channel talks with Pakistan and asked them to put the terror leaders behind bars”.

“India should have asked a third country, even China, that these are our clear demands in the wake of this terrible attack. That would have been an effective diplomatic way of going about things,” he added.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, facing an election by May, has warned Pakistan to expect a “strong response” to the bombing, raising fears of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Pakistan appeals to the UN

On Tuesday, Pakistan also appealed to the United Nations to intervene.

“It is with a sense of urgency that I draw your attention to the deteriorating security situation in our region resulting from the threat of use of force against Pakistan by India,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The JeM armed group, which wants the Muslim-majority region to be part of Pakistan, claimed the attack but the Pakistani government has denied any involvement.

“Attributing it to Pakistan even before investigations is absurd,” Qureshi said.

“India must be asked to conduct an open and credible investigation on Pulwama incident,” he said.

Kashmir is at the heart of decades of hostility between India and Pakistan. They both claim it in full but rule it in parts.

Last year, Kashmir saw the deaths of more than 500 people, including 145 civilians – the bloodiest since 2009. A UN report released last year accused the Indian army of having used excessive force in Kashmir to kill and wound civilians since 2016. New Delhi rejected the report calling it “fallacious” and “motivated”.

India withdrew trade privileges offered to Pakistan after the bomb attack and has warned of further action.

The United States has told India it supports its right to defend itself against cross-border attacks, New Delhi said on Saturday.

With tension mounting, Pakistan withdrew its envoy to India for consultations, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said on Twitter on Monday.

Calls for revenge

The Thursday’s bomb attack has sparked outrage in India with calls for revenge circulating on social media, and rising animosity towards Kashmiri Muslims in other parts of the Hindu-majority country, to the alarm of rights groups.

“We are at a dangerous moment, and authorities must do everything they can to uphold the rule of law,” said Aakar Patel, the head of Amnesty International India.

“Ordinary Kashmiris across India who are only seeking to improve their lives should not be singled out for violence simply because of where they come from.”

The anger has also spread to India’s two big obsessions: cricket and its Bollywood film industry.

Several cricket fans and a sport official have called on India to boycott a World Cup match against Pakistan in June, while the Cricket Club of India has covered up a portrait of the Pakistan prime minister – himself a former cricketer – at its Mumbai office.

The All India Cine Workers Association called for a “total ban” on Pakistanis working in India’s film industry, though they have been largely blacklisted from Bollywood since a similar attack in Kashmir in 2016 in which 19 soldiers died.

Additional reporting by Zeenat Saberin