US and China call for a de-escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan

India incursion ‘imminent’, Pakistan defense minister says
Pakistan’s defense minister said a military incursion by India was imminent after the Kashmirattack which claimed the lives of 26 people.

“We have reinforced our forces because it is something which is imminent now,” Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters, adding that “strategic decisions” have been taken.

Asif also said the country would only use its nuclear weapons in the case of a “direct threat to our existence.”

The Pakistani defense minister is a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, which has historically pursued peace talks with neighboring India.
Kashmir leader calls for caution in Indian response
India should be careful not to alienate Kashmiris in its hunt for militants who killed 26 people last week, the region’s chief minister has said.

Omar Abdullah said this was particularly important given that people in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region have staged protests against that attack, its chief minister said on Monday.

“We should not do anything to alienate the people after their spontaneous reaction [against the attack],” Abdullah, chief minister of the Indian federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir, told the local assembly house.

“Guns can only control militancy, not finish it. It will only end when the people are with us. It seems people are now reaching that stage.”
India bans several Pakistani YouTube channels
Indiabanned sixteen Pakistani YouTube accounts for allegedly spreading “provocative” content following the Kashmir attack.

Among the banned accounts are those of Pakistani media outlets Dawn, Samaa TV, ARY News and others.

When users in India try to access the accounts, they receive a message which reads they are blocked due to an “order from the government related to national security or public order.”

The Kashmirattack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, was the worst on civilians in the contested region.
Pakistan army says it killed 71 Islamist militants in three days
On Sunday, Pakistan security forces said it killed 54 militants in an overnight operation in the North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province close to the Afghanistan border. It followed the militants’ attempt to cross into the country, marking one of the deadliest of such killings in recent years.

In a statement, the military said that intelligence reports indicated the killed militants were “Khwarij,” a term used by the government for Pakistani Taliban.

In another overnight operation on Monday, the Pakistani army said its troops killed 17 more militants trying to cross the border, bringing the total of insurgents killed to 71 in the past three days.