MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. The Russian side calls on Pakistan and India to show restraint and engage in constructive dialogue to resolve their disagreements peacefully, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Russian side has voiced an appeal to both sides for restraint and constructive dialogue aimed at the peaceful resolution of differences," the ministry said following a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko and Pakistan's Ambassador to Moscow Muhammad Khalid Jamali.
During the meeting, the parties discussed various aspects of Russia-Pakistan interaction, as well as "the escalation of tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi over the April 22 terrorist attack in Kashmir."
The ministry specified that the conversation took place at the request of the Pakistani envoy.
On April 22, armed men wearing fatigues opened fire with machine guns in the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, killing 25 Indian citizens and one Nepalese national, injuring many others. The attackers fled the scene.
In the wake of the attack, India reduced the size of its embassy staff in Islamabad by nearly half, declared the military advisors of the Pakistani diplomatic mission in India personae non gratae, and closed the key Attari checkpoint on the border. Indian authorities also suspended the agreement with Islamabad on water resource distribution and halted the issuance of visas to Pakistani citizens.