LONDON, April 25. /TASS/. Indian authorities have not provided any evidence of links between terrorists from the radical group Lashkar-e-Taiba (outlawed in Russia) and Pakistan, and New Delhi exploited the terrorist attack to escalate the situation in the region, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said in an interview with Sky News.

"They (the Indian authorities - TASS) never came up with any evidence. They create a situation for their own advantage," the minister said, insisting that Pakistan had nothing to do with the attack.

According to him, the Lashkar-e-Taiba group "does not exist in Pakistan anymore" and US and Indian intelligence drew false conclusions. "Our intelligence agencies say it’s all staged," Asif said, adding that "this whole thing was staged to create some sort of crisis in the region, particularly for us."

On April 22, armed militants opened fire on tourists in the town of Pahalgam in northern India (Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir), killing 25 Indian nationals and one tourist from Nepal, and wounding many more. The perpetrators managed to flee the scene. The Times of India reported, citing intelligence sources, that the attack was carried out by the Resistance Front, a militant wing of the Pakistan-based radical group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

After the attack, India almost halved the staff of its embassy in Islamabad, declared the military advisors of the Pakistani diplomatic mission in India personae non gratae, and shut down the key Attari checkpoint on the shared border with Pakistan. The Indian authorities also suspended an agreement with Islamabad on the management of water resources and the issuance of visas to Pakistani citizens.

Pakistan’s Security Council said it was suspending all bilateral agreements with India and vowed to consider any attempt by India to divert the water flow from the Indus River as an act of war. Additionally, Islamabad closed its airspace to India, shut down the Wagah checkpoint, and declared Indian defense, navy, and aviation advisors personae non gratae.