India-Pakistan fighting isn’t our business according to the Vice President

U.S. versus Pakistan tensions in light of recent tension-broadening exercises in Kashmir and the Indian-Pakistan conflict

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.

A question about the Trump administration being worried about nuclear conflict was posed by a Fox News reporter. “We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible,” and added: “We can’t control these countries though.”

We can encourage them to de-escalate, but we will not get involved in the middle of a war that has nothing to do with our ability to control it.

He said the administration was pursuing a diplomatic way to de-escalate tensions and didn’t think there would be a nuclear war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday he spoke to the Indian foreign minister and the Pakistani prime minister.

It seems to have come to the opinion of the Crisis Group 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 hard to dial down tensions in 1999 and 2019.

She doesn’t believe there is another power that could step into this vacuum, despite the two countries relying on the US to talk them off the ledge. Now more than ever, she described them as “two nuclear powers that are inherently in a very unstable situation.”

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 denies having anything to do with the attack.

Overnight Wednesday, India launched missile strikes across Pakistan, in what it said was retaliation. Pakistan said it had downed five Indian aircraft. The two sides have traded drone strikes and projectiles since then.

On Friday, at least two projectiles landed near a military cantonment in the Pakistani city of Okara. Residents video one careering to the ground, spinning across a field and emitting smoke as young men sprinted out of the way. Two residents independently described the incident to NPR, but both requested anonymity because they did not want to anger Pakistani authorities, which have not commented on the incident.

“There were a lot of fireballs in the sky during the bombardment,” said Gowher Ahmad, 43, of Jammu city. Friday was quiet, but Ahmad said he feared the night.

Revisiting a Kashmiri preacher’s sermon on social media: “It’s a story of two people in Kashmir,” says Jaspreet Kaur

Most of the 10,000 residents of the village have fled, according to Jaspreet Kaur. She said that most of the people were in the basement of a three-story building. 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.

India seems to be cracking down more on critics. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a prominent Kashmiri preacher who advocates independence, said on X that he wasn’t allowed to attend Muslim Friday Prayers in Indian-held Kashmir. He urged the countries to “not tread on this dangerous path, which can only lead to destruction” after he posted a video of his previous sermon.

The social media network X also said it had received “executive orders” from the Indian government to block more than 8,000 accounts, including news organizations, it said in a message on its global affairs account. Those blocked appeared to include Anuradha Bhasin, a prominent Kashmir-based journalist, and The Wire, an independent news site based in New Delhi. The authorities in India did not reply to the requests.

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.

The explosions shook my kids out of their sleep. Mohammed Yasin is a Srinagar resident who said he heard at least two explosions.

India fires missiles at three air bases. Pakistani retaliation underway: A warning to calm and prepare for a war of aggression in the region

The two countries were in a conflict even if they did not call it one, says Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

“It is a remorseless race for military one upmanship with no apparent strategic end goals from either side”, said Donthi. “With increasing civilian casualties on both sides, finding an exit or off-ramp is going to be challenging.”

India’s army said it destroyed multiple armed Pakistani drones that were spotted flying over a military cantonment in northern Punjab state’s Amritsar city early Saturday.

In Pakistan, the civil aviation authority shut the country’s airports for all flight operations and people in major cities were seen chanting slogans supporting the armed forces.

The G7 urged maximum restraint from India and Pakistan. It warned Friday that further military escalation posed a serious threat to regional stability.

The missiles that the Pakistani military used to target the Indian missile storage facility and air base were medium-range. There was no way to independently verify all the actions attributed to Pakistan or India.

Pakistan’s air force assets were in good shape following the strikes by India, according to the army spokesman.

State-run Pakistan Television reported that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has convened a meeting of the National Command Authority, the body responsible for overseeing the country’s missile program and other strategic assets.

The call for calm came ahead of Saturday’s Indian missile strikes, which targeted Nur Khan air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, Murid air base in Chakwal city and Rafiqui air base in the Jhang district of eastern Punjab province, according to Pakistan’s military spokesman.

There was no media access to the air base in Rawalpindi, which is in a densely populated city, and there were no reports of residents hearing or seeing the strike.

Source: Pakistan says India fired missiles at 3 air bases. Pakistani retaliation underway

Jammu, Srinagar and Udhampur are suffering in retaliation after the announcement of Pakistani nuclear repulsion

Following the announcement of Pakistani retaliation, residents in Indian-controlled Kashmir said they heard loud explosions at multiple places in the region, including the two big cities of Srinagar and Jammu, and the garrison town of Udhampur.

“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.”