NEW DELHI, April 28. /TASS/. There are risks of a war with India within the next two to four days, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif reportedly said.
"We should be mentally prepared there is a war looming on the horizon. The possibility is there, a very vivid possibility that we can have war in the next day or two or three or four," the Pakistani Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying. According to the minister, his words should not be misinterpreted as a categorical prediction that the war will surely begin within a couple of days. He explained that he only means that the "upcoming days would be crucial."
"Pakistan is 100 per cent ready to face any combat situation if the country’s sovereignty is threatened or war imposed on it," he said, adding that other countries of the region are working on preventing any disputable situations and toward deescalating the conflict.
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. Indian intelligence services found evidence that the Pakistani secret services were behind the attack by terrorists from the radical group Lashkar-e-Taiba (outlawed in Russia), The Hindustan Times said, citing sources.
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.
Following the attack, India nearly halved its embassy staff in Islamabad, declared the military advisors of the Pakistani diplomatic mission in India personae non gratae, and closed the key Attari checkpoint on the border with Pakistan. Apart from that, Indian authorities suspended the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan and stopped issuing visas to Pakistani nationals.
The Pakistani Security Council, in turn, said that Islamabad was suspending all bilateral agreements with India and warned that it would interpret any India’s attempt to redirect Indus’ waters as an act of war. Pakistan also closed its airspace for India, shut close the Wagah checkpoint and expelled Indian defense, naval and aviation advisers. The Pakistani Security Council has claimed that it has evidence of India sponsoring terrorist units in the country.