‘Evolving situation’: US says in touch with India-Pakistan amid tensions after Pahalgam terrorist attack

The U.S. State Department announced on Sunday that Washington was in touch with both India and Pakistan, urging them to work toward a “responsible solution” as tensions escalated between the two nations following a recent Islamist militant attack in Kashmir, Reuters reported.

While publicly supporting India after the attack, the US government has refrained from criticising Pakistan. India accused Pakistan of being behind the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of over two dozen people.

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Pakistan, however, denied any involvement and called for an impartial investigation.

“This is an evolving situation and we are monitoring developments closely. We have been in touch with the governments of India and Pakistan at multiple levels,” a US State Department spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement.

“The United States encourages all parties to work together towards a responsible resolution,” the spokesperson added.

The State Department spokesperson also stated that Washington “stands with India and strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Pahalgam,” echoing statements made recently by US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

What may worry Islamabad?

India has become an increasingly important partner for the US as Washington seeks to counter China’s growing influence in Asia, while Pakistan remains a US ally, despite its diminished significance following the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.

Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based South Asia analyst and writer for the Foreign Policy magazine, said India is now a much closer US partner than Pakistan. “This may worry Islamabad that if India retaliates militarily, the U.S. may sympathize with its counter-terrorism imperatives and not try to stand in the way,” Kugelman told Reuters.

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Kugelman also said that given Washington's involvement and ongoing diplomatic efforts in Russia's war in Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza, the Trump administration is “dealing with a lot on its global plate” and may leave India and Pakistan on their own, at least in the early days of the tensions, as reported by Reuters.

Hussain Haqqani, a former Pakistan ambassador to the US and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, also said that there seemed to be no US appetite to calm the situation at this moment.

“India has a longstanding grievance about terrorism emanating or supported from across borders.”

Pakistan has a longstanding belief that India wants to dismember it. Both work themselves into a frenzy every few years. This time there is no U.S. interest in calming things down," Haqqani said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to pursue the attackers "to the ends of the earth" and vowed that those responsible for the Kashmir attack "will be punished beyond their imagination."

There has been an increasing call from Indian politicians and others for military action against Pakistan.

In the wake of the attack, both India and Pakistan implemented a series of retaliatory measures. Pakistan closed its airspace to Indian airlines, while India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, which governs the sharing of water from the Indus River and its tributaries.

The two countries have also exchanged fire across their de facto border, ending four years of relative calm.

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A lesser-known militant group, Kashmir Resistance, claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media post. Indian security agencies believe that Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front, is a front for Pakistan-based militant organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

Ned Price, a former U.S. State Department official under the administration of former President Joe Biden, said that while the Trump administration was giving this issue the sensitivity it deserves, a perception that it would back India at any cost may escalate tensions further.

“The Trump Administration has made clear it wishes to deepen the U.S.-India partnership — a laudable goal — but that it is willing to do so at almost any cost. If India feels that the Trump Administration will back it to the hilt no matter what, we could be in store for more escalation and more violence between these nuclear-armed neighbors,” Price said, as reported by Reuters.

(With inputs from Reuters)