Islamabad (AP) – The Iranian Foreign Minister had talks with senior Pakistani officials on Monday to try to mediate in climbing between Islamabad and New Delhi after last month Landy attack on tourists in the Part controlled by cashmere India.
The visit of Abbas Araghchi to Islamabad was the first by a foreign dignitary since tensions broke out following the April 22 massacre of 26 people – most Indian Hindu tourists – in the city of Pahalgam, which India blame in Pakistan, an accusation that Islamabad denies.
Tehran proposed to help reduce tensions between nuclear neighbors.
Araghchi has held separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who thanked him for his peace efforts, according to government statements. Araghchi will visit India this week, according to the Pakistani media managed by the state.
Pakistan soldiers were on alert alert after the Minister of the Cabinet, Attaullah Tarar, cited information indicating that India could attack. Pakistan denied any role in the mainly Indian tourists massacre and proposed to cooperate with an international survey. India has not accepted the offer so far, and several world leaders have urged the two parties to exercise a restraint and avoid a new escalation.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar said in television remarks that Pakistan “will exercise total restraint, but if India takes an adventurous step, we will give an appropriate response”.
According to a statement from the ministry, Dar in talks with Araghchi rejected what he described as India’s attempts to involve Pakistan in the attack on cashmere.
Dar had previously welcomed mediation to defuse tensions with India. Since last week, he said that he had spoken to more than a dozen foreign dignitaries, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“We will not be the first to cross a climbing measure,” said Dar, adding that he had warned the international community that, if there was “any act of aggression by India, Pakistan would resolutely defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity”.
He accused the Indian Air Force of having tried to break the Pakistani airspace on April 28. Pakistan has scrambled the planes and forced Indian jets to go back, he said. There was no immediate comment from India on these statements.
The spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Randir Jaiswal, wrote on X that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “strongly sentenced the terrorist attack to Pahalgam”.
The cashmere is divided Between India and Pakistan and claimed by the two in its entirety. The two countries fought two of their three wars in the Himalayan region and their ties were shaped by conflicts, aggressive diplomacy and mutual suspicionMainly because of their competing statements on cashmere.
The last push led the two countries to expel diplomats and nationalsas well as the airspace component.
DAR also denounced the suspension last month of a water sharing treaty through India.
In the city of Akhoror in cashmere under Indian control, where the Chenab river rushes to Pakistan, the residents said that the water levels were so low that people could cross the river on Monday.
“I have never seen this river dry in my life,” said the 55 -year -old farmer, Bal Krishan, adding that he agreed with “Modi’s decision to suspend the treaty and punish” Pakistan.
There were no immediate comments from civil servants.
Also on Monday, Pakistani Minister of Information, Attaullah Tarar, led a group of journalists in the Bella Noor Shah mountain village, near Muzaffarabad – the main city of cashmere administered by Pakistan – where he declared that New Delhi had falsely demanded the presence of a militant training camp.
Village residents told journalists that they had never seen these camps in the region.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani army said on Monday that it had tested a short -range missile, the second test launch of this type after a medium -range missile on Saturday.
The army said that the Fatah surface surface missile had a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles) and was launched from an uncompromising location. Such missiles are never fired towards India and generally end up reaching the Oman Sea or deserts from the province of southern Balutchistan.
Mushaal Hussein, the wife of a rebel chief cashmere, Mohammed Yasin Malik, accused India of having falsely involved Pakistan in the attack on tourists. She made her comments after attending a ceremony for clearing the flag on the Wagah border. Malik, who is imprisoned in India for terrorist accusations, married him in Pakistan in 2009.
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Muhammad Yousaf reported in Muzaffarabad. Rajesh Roy in New Delhi and Channi Anand in Akhoror, India, contributed to this report.
