ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran's foreign minister held talks with top Pakistani officials on Monday to try and mediate in the escalation between Islamabad and New Delhi after last month's deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.
Abbas Araghchi's visit to Islamabad was the first by a foreign dignitary since tensions flared in the wake of the April 22 massacre of 26 people — most of them Indian Hindu tourists — in the town of Pahalgam, which India blames on Pakistan, an accusation that Islamabad denies.
Tehran has offered to help ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Araghchi held separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who thanked him for his peace efforts, according to government statements. Araghchi will visit India this week, according to Pakistani state-run media.
Pakistan's military has been on high alert after Cabinet Minister Attaullah Tarar cited intelligence indicating that India could attack. Pakistan has denied any role in the massacre of mostly Indian tourists, and offered to cooperate with an international investigation. India hasn't accepted the offer so far, and several world leaders have urged both sides to exercise restraint and avoid further escalation.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in televised remarks that Pakistan “will exercise full restraint, but if India takes any adventurous step, then we will give a befitting response.”
According to a ministry statement, Dar in talks with Araghchi rejected what he described as India’s attempts to implicate Pakistan in the Kashmir attack.
Dar had earlier welcomed mediation to defuse the tensions with India. Since last week, he said that he's spoken to more than a dozen foreign dignitaries, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“We will not be the first to take any escalatory step,” Dar said, adding that he had warned the international community that, should there be “any act of aggression by India, Pakistan will resolutely defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
He accused the Indian air force of attempting to breach Pakistani airspace on April 28. Pakistan scrambled aircraft and forced Indian jets to turn back, he said. There was no immediate comment from India on those claims.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal wrote on X that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and “strongly condemned the terror attack in Pahalgam."
Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region and their ties have been shaped by conflict, aggressive diplomacy and mutual suspicion, mostly because of their competing claims over Kashmir.
The latest flare-up led the two countries to expel each other's diplomats and nationals, as well as the shuttering of airspace.
Dar also denounced last month's suspension of a water-sharing treaty by India.
In the town of Akhnoor in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where the Chenab River flows into Pakistan, residents said that water levels were so low, people could walk across the river on Monday.
“I have never seen this river dry in my life,” said 55-year-old farmer Bal Krishan, adding that he agreed with “Modi’s decision to suspend the treaty and punish” Pakistan.
There was no immediate comment from officials.
Also Monday, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar led a group of journalists to the mountain village of Bella Noor Shah, near Muzaffarabad — the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir — where he said that New Delhi had falsely claimed the presence of a militant training camp.
Residents of the village told reporters they had never seen any such camp in the area.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military said Monday that it test-fired a short-range missile, the second such test launch after a medium-range missile on Saturday.
The military said that the Fatah surface-to-surface missile has a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles) and was launched from an undisclosed location. Such missiles are never fired toward India, and usually end up reaching the Arabian Sea or the deserts of southern Balochistan province.
Mushaal Hussein, the wife of a top Kashmiri rebel leader, Mohammed Yasin Malik, accused India of falsely implicating Pakistan in the attack on tourists. She made her remarks after attending a flag-lowering ceremony at the Wagah border. Malik, who is imprisoned in India on terror charges, married her in Pakistan in 2009.
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Muhammad Yousaf reported from Muzaffarabad. Rajesh Roy in New Delhi, and Channi Anand in Akhnoor, India, contributed to this report.
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