Pakistan’s information minister says that the country has “credible intelligence” that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours.
Attaullah Tarar’s comments come after India accused Pakistan of supporting militants behind an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists last week. Islamabad rejects the allegations.
Tarar said that India intends to use the attack as a “false pretext” for a strike and that “any such military adventurism by India would be responded to assuredly and decisively”.
The BBC has contacted the Indian foreign ministry for comment.
The attack near the tourist town of Pahalgam was the deadliest attack on civilians in two decades in the disputed territory. Both India and Pakistan claim the region and have fought two wars over it.
Troops from both sides have traded intermittent small-arms fire across the border in recent days.
There has been speculation over whether India will respond with military strikes against Pakistan, as it did after deadly militant attacks in 2019 and 2016.
Authorities said last week they had conducted extensive searches in Indian-administered Kashmir, detaining more than 1,500 people for questioning. More people have been detained since then, although the numbers are unclear.
Authorities have demolished the houses of at least 10 alleged militants. At least one was reportedly linked to a suspect named in the shootings.
Kashmir, which India and Pakistan claim in full but administer only in part, has been a flashpoint between the two nuclear-armed countries since they were partitioned in 1947.
Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an armed insurgency against Indian rule since 1989, with militants targeting security forces and civilians alike.
India has not named any group it suspects carried out the attack in Pahalgam and it remains unclear who did it. A little-known group called the Resistance Front, which was initially reported to have claimed it carried out the shootings, issued a statement denying involvement. The front is reportedly affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group.
Indian police have named three of four suspected attackers. They said two were Pakistani nationals and one a local man from Indian-administered Kashmir. There is no information on the fourth man.
Many survivors said the gunmen specifically targeted Hindu men.
The attack has sparked widespread anger in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly saying the country will hunt the suspects “till the ends of the earth” and that those who planned and carried it out “will be punished beyond their imagination”.
