India's Army chief on Friday visited the Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir to review security arrangements following one of the worst militant attacks on tourists in decades.
Gunmen opened fire on Tuesday, killing 26 people who were enjoying their summer holidays at the picturesque Baisaran meadow, some 5km from the resort town of Pahalgam in the federal territory of Kashmir.
India said there were Pakistani elements in Tuesday's attack, a claim denied by Islamabad. Both nuclear-armed nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, including India keeping a critical river water-sharing treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines.
Both nations have also cancelled visas for their nationals to each other's countries and suspended trade.
The UN has urged India and Pakistan "to exercise maximum restraint and to ensure that the situation and the developments we've seen do not deteriorate any further".
"Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe can be and should be resolved peacefully, through meaningful, mutual engagement," the statement said Friday.
-checkpoint-at-the-Attari-Wagah-border-crossing-on-the.jpeg)
India's Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi will review security arrangements and is likely to visit the site of the attack, an army source told Reuters.
At least four militants fired at dozens of tourists, most of them Indians, from close range, eyewitnesses said.
Prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday vowed to chase the perpetrators to "the ends of the earth". Indian officials said Tuesday's attack had "cross-border linkages".
The local police in notices identifying three people "involved" in the violence and said two of them were Pakistani nationals. Indian authorities on Friday demolished the houses of two suspected militants, one of whom is an accused in Tuesday's attack.
The police claimed the suspects operated for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a proscribed militant group based in Pakistan, which promptly denied involvement.
The Indian Army had a brief exchange of fire with Pakistani soldiers along their highly militarised frontier in Kashmir, New Delhi said.
Three Indian Army officials said Pakistani soldiers used small arms to fire at an Indian position in Kashmir late Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said Indian soldiers retaliated and no casualties were reported.
Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan told a news conference that "I will wait for a formal confirmation from the military before I make any comment."
Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir demolished homes of two Pahalgam suspects “using explosives” during Thursday night in south Kashmir, according to reports.
Pahalgam attack: Who was behind the attack that killed 26 tourists in Kashmir?
India and Pakistan expel each other’s citizens as fears grow of military escalation
What is Indus Water Treaty and why is it so critical for India and Pakistan?
Kashmir: What we know about the deadly attack on a Himalayan tourist town
What we know about Kashmir terror attack victims after 26 killed by militants
India shuts Pakistan border crossing following deadly Kashmir attack
