Pakistan’s defense minister on Friday declared his country’s innocence in a terror attack that killed 26 people this week in disputed Kashmir territory controlled by India, and said that an international investigation into the attack was needed.
In an interview, the minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, said that the country was “ready to cooperate” with “any investigation which is conducted by international inspectors.”
The minister’s remarks appeared to be aimed at defusing tensions with India, after armed militants attacked a tourist group on Tuesday near Pahalgam, a town in the southern part of Kashmir. It was the deadliest terror attack on Indian-administered land in years.
In the days since, India has moved quickly to take steps against Pakistan, which also controls part of Kashmir, including by closing border crossings and suspending a crucial water pact. Officials in India have said they suspect the involvement of at least two Pakistani nationals in the attack.
Mr. Asif said that India had used the aftermath of the terror attack as a pretext to suspend the water treaty, and for domestic political purposes. India, he said, was taking steps to punish Pakistan “without any proof, without any investigation.”
Pakistani officials have asked the Trump administration to mediate the dispute.
“We do not want this war to flare up, because flaring up of this war can cause disaster for this region,” Mr. Asif said.
The last major militant assault in the Indian part of Kashmir took place in 2019, when dozens of Indian security personnel were killed. After that attack, India launched airstrikes on Pakistan.
Officials in Washington have not yet attributed the attack in Kashmir this week to any group. A little-known group called the Resistance Front has reportedly claimed responsibility.
But the United States and other nations are wary about the aftermath of the attack. The loss of life has prompted sharp actions from India, and Western officials have worried that the tensions between two nuclear-armed neighbors could spiral out of control.
Still, Trump administration officials have expressed support for India. Vice President JD Vance was in India this week, a trip that came after Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, delivered a speech last month in New Delhi on the importance of international peace.
Both Pakistan and India have closed border crossings and taken actions against diplomats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said this week that his country would punish “every terrorist and their backers.”
“India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism,” he said.
Indian officials say the group that claimed responsibility for the attack is a proxy for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group behind the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
Mr. Asif disputed that allegation. He said Lashkar-e-Taiba was “defunct” and had no ability to plan or conduct attacks from Pakistan-controlled territory.
“They are finished; they don’t have any setup in Pakistan,” he said. “Those people, whatever is left of them, they are contained. Some of them are under house arrest, some of them are in custody. They are not at all active.”
U.S. officials have said that Lashkar-e-Taiba showed signs of activity in recent years, and its leader has lived in the open in Pakistan.
Mr. Asif suggested that the attack might have been carried out by local separatist groups in Kashmir pushing for more local control.
He added that Pakistan does not support separatist groups in India. But other Pakistani officials have said that does not apply to Kashmir. Pakistan’s army chief last week called Kashmir his country’s “jugular vein” and said “we will not leave our Kashmiri brethren in their heroic struggle that they are waging against Indian occupation.”
Mr. Asif also suggested, without evidence, that the attack could have been a “false flag” carried out by the Indian government to provoke a crisis.
Pakistan, he said, had nothing to gain from a terror attack on civilians. The Indian government, he added, was using it to marshal support and to get out of the water treaty.
The World Bank negotiated the Indus Waters Treaty, which India and Pakistan signed in 1960. By suspending the treaty, India could at some point restrict the flow of rivers into Pakistan, cutting off the country’s source of water for irrigation and human consumption.
Mr. Asif, who previously served as Pakistan’s minister in charge of water supplies, said that for the last decade, India had been trying to get out of the treaty, which has been a source of stability in the region.
“They were creating excuses. They were creating problems that were not there,” he said. “They have now found an excuse to get out of this arrangement.”
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting from New Delhi.
