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India’s Modi gives army freedom to act as tensions rise with Pakistan after deadly terror attack

Pakistani minister claims India ‘intends carrying out a military action’ against his country ‘in the next 24-36 hours’

Published April 29, 2025 3:50pm EDT | Updated April 29, 2025 6:25pm EDT

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India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is giving the armed forces near complete freedom of action to respond following a deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region on April 22 that saw 26 people killed by terrorists. India and Pakistan have exchanged fire every day since the attack along the Line of Control that separates the Indian and Pakistani areas of Kashmir.

The Times of India reported on Tuesday that Modi has given the military the operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets, and timing of the response to the attack in Kashmir.

PAKISTAN FEARS INDIA INCURSION ‘IMMINENT’ AMID HEIGHTENED TENSIONS FOLLOWING TERROR ATTACK

Kashmiri villager women walk past the blown-up family home of Asif Shiekh, a militant who officials all is involved in the deadly attack on tourists in Pahalgam, at Monghama village in Tral, south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Modi is set to convene another meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday to coordinate India’s next moves.

The move comes as Pakistan’s Minister for information and broadcasting claimed on X that his country has “credible intelligence that India intends carrying out military action against Pakistan in the next 24-36 hours on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident.”

Modi recently said India will “identify, track and punish every terrorist, their handlers and their backers,” in a post on X. “We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” Modi added.

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India’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters that the country has mobilized its forces because retaliation is “something which is imminent now.”

The Resistance Front (TRF), an extremist group linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organization based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam. Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and is known to have links with the Pakistani military and a partnership with Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is garlanded by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Rajnath Singh, left, party President JP Nadda, right, and Amit Shah, at the party headquarters in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

The attack, which killed 26 people and was the worst terrorist attack on India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has increased tensions on the Indian subcontinent between two nuclear-armed powers.

“An Indian military response is likely reflecting the more muscular foreign policy of the Modi government as noted by its actions following previous terrorist attacks,” Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House, told Fox News Digital.

HERE’S WHY A FLARE-UP BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN OVER KASHMIR MATTERS

Bajpaee noted that a surgical strike or airstrike is the most likely form of retaliation, and the response will likely take a calibrated approach to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties and to control the escalation ladder in order to keep the conflict below the nuclear threshold.

“However, this is easier said than done given the possibility of accidental escalation” and a “broader tit-for-tat military escalation cannot be ruled out,” he warned.

Although there was limited outreach from Modi in the past, two rounds of escalation in 2016 and 2019 have soured relations.

Indian army officers stands guard near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Sadanand Dhume, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital that Modi is facing pressure to mount a tough response.

“The Indian public is outraged by last week’s terrorist attack in Kashmir, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under immense pressure to respond to the atrocity by striking Pakistan, which has long sponsored attacks on India,” Dhume said.

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