Pak minister claims India planning military strike within 36 hours

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar claimed early Wednesday that the country had received “credible intelligence”, indicating India may carry out a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours. This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday granted the Indian armed forces “complete operational freedom” to respond to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 people on April 22, government sources told.

In a statement posted on X, Tarar warned that any act of aggression would be met with a decisive response and hold India accountable for any serious consequences in the region.

“Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours using the Pahalgam incident as a false pretext,” Tarar said.

“Any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response. India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region,” he added.

He further stated, “Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism itself and truly understands the pain of this scourge. We have always condemned it in all its forms and manifestations, anywhere in the world.”

The minister said Pakistan had “open-heartedly offered a credible, transparent, and independent investigation by a neutral commission of experts to ascertain the truth”.

He also urged the international community to recognise the severity of the situation, stressing that “the onus of an escalatory spiral and its ensuing consequences shall squarely lie with India”. “The nation reiterates its resolve to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan at all costs,” he further said.

Tensions between the two neighbouring nations escalated as India has said there were Pakistani elements to the terror attack that killed 26 people in Pahalgam.

Earlier, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told news agency Reuters that a military incursion by India was imminent. Pakistan was on high alert but would only use its nuclear weapons if “there is a direct threat to our existence”, Asif said.

PM Modi on April 24 asserted that India will “identify, track, and punish” every terrorist and their “backers” involved in the Pahalgam carnage and pursue the killers to the “ends of the earth”, as India stepped up the diplomatic offensive against Pakistan.

India downgraded diplomatic ties with Pakistan and suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, closed the Attari-Wagah border, expelled all Pakistani miltary attaches, while Pakistan responded with tit-for-tat measures and paused the 1972 Simla Agreement.