Hundreds protest in Pakistan over India’s threats

LAHORE: Hundreds of Pakistanis joined protests across the country on Thursday, including in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), to rage against Indian threats after a deadly attack on tourists across the contested border.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to pursue and punish the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam on Tuesday, accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism”.

The attack in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) was the deadliest for a quarter of a century and marked a dramatic shift with the targeting of civilians instead of Indian security forces.

“If India wants to go to war, then come forward openly,” businessman Ajmal Baloch told AFP at a protest called by a religious party and attended by around 700 people in Lahore, where the main border crossing with India is located.

India has said it will suspend the Indus Water Treaty, which shares critical water between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, although it has no major means of restricting the river’s flow downstream to Pakistan.

However, protesters, including Baloch, raged against the “unacceptable” threat.

“Water is our right and, God willing, we will reclaim it, even if that means through war. We will not back down,” 25-year-old Muhammad Owais said.

Around 300 people brandishing placards carrying anti-India slogans marched through the main city of Muzaffarabad.

“If India makes the mistake of attacking, the Pakistani Kashmiris will fight on the frontline, we’re ready to die for Pakistan,” said Shoukat Javed Mir, a senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the region.

In Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, around 150 people staged a protest.