Today, as condemnations pour in from countries across the globe, leading international powers must take their share of blame for their unwillingness or inability to draw a red line around Pakistan’s patronage of terror. India’s response should be calibrated, restrained and responsible. Modi will be under enormous pressure to react swiftly. More so because the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has always claimed to be more nationalistic than the opposition. And with elections just a month or so away, the government has a short window to make its point.<doc-sep>Pay based on use Get Started Purchase a Team or Enterprise subscription for per week You will be billed per month after the trial ends<doc-sep>Pulwama attack: India will 'completely isolate' Pakistan Published 15 February 2019 media caption Indian Interior Minister Rajnath Singh meets injured troops India has said it will ensure the "complete isolation" of Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed 46 paramilitary police in Indian-administered Kashmir. It claims to have "incontrovertible evidence" of its neighbour's involvement but has not provided it. Pakistan denies any role in the attack by militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, which is based on its soil. Thursday's bombing of the convoy was the deadliest attack on Indian forces in the region for decades. Federal Minister Arun Jaitley said India would take "all possible diplomatic steps" to cut Pakistan off from the international community. But a Pakistani minister has asked India to reveal their evidence, and offered to help them investigate the attack. There has been an insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir since the late 1980s but violence has risen in recent years. image copyright Reuters image caption Protests were held in Jammu after Thursday's attack In the wake of the attack, authorities have imposed a curfew in parts of Hindu-majority Jammu city after an angry mob vandalised cars in a largely Muslim neighbourhood. Both India and Pakistan claim all of Muslim-majority Kashmir but only control parts of it. How will India 'punish' Pakistan? India says that Pakistan has long given safe haven to Jaish-e-Mohammad militants and accused it of having a "direct hand" in Thursday's attack. It has called for global sanctions against the group and for its leader, Masood Azhar, to be listed as a terrorist by the UN security council. India has tried to do this several times in the past but was repeatedly blocked by China, an ally of Pakistan. Mr Jaitley set out India's determination to hold Pakistan to account when speaking to reporters after attending a security meeting early on Friday. He also confirmed that India would revoke Most Favoured Nation status from Pakistan, a special trading privilege granted in 1996. Pakistan said it was gravely concerned by the bombing but firmly rejected allegations that it was responsible. The country's Information Minister, Fawad Chaudry, asked India to show its evidence, and offered to help the investigation into the attack. "This needs evidence," he told broadcaster CNN-News18. "This needs an investigation." India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a speech that those behind the attack would pay a "heavy price", leading many analysts to expect further action from Delhi. But they say that the government's military options appear limited due to heavy snow across the region. After a 2016 attack on an Indian army base that killed 19 soldiers, Delhi said it carried out a campaign of "surgical strikes" in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, across the de facto border. But a BBC investigation found little evidence militants had been hit. How did the attack unfold? The bomber used a vehicle packed with explosives to ram a convoy of 78 buses carrying Indian security forces on the heavily guarded Srinagar-Jammu highway about 20km (12 miles) from the capital, Srinagar. The bomber is reported to be Adil Dar, a high school dropout who left home in March 2018. He is believed to be between the ages of 19 and 21. media caption The blast took place on a heavily guarded highway Soon after the attack, Jaish-e-Mohammad released a video in which a young man identified as Dar spoke about what he described as atrocities against Kashmiri Muslims. He said he had joined the group in 2018 and was eventually "assigned" the task of carrying out the attack in Pulwama. He also said that by the time the video was released he would be in jannat (heaven). Dar is one of many young Kashmiri men who have been radicalised in recent years. On Thursday, main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said that the number of Kashmiri men joining militancy had risen from 88 in 2016 to 191 in 2018. India has been accused of using brutal tactics to put down protests in Kashmir - with thousands of people sustaining eye injuries from pellet guns used by security forces. 'It feels like my son is always with me' by Arvind Chhabra, BBC News Punjabi image caption Kulwinder Singh was killed in the attack on Thursday "I'm proud of my son. He has sacrificed himself for his family," says Darshan Singh, whose son, Kulwinder, died in the suicide attack in Kashmir. Mr Singh, who lives in Rauli village in Punjab, last saw Kulwinder on 10 February, before he returned to Kashmir at the end of his vacation. His son was 26 and planned to marry in November: "We talked of only his wedding. We had finalised the caterers and the venue." "It feels like my son is always with me," Mr Singh says, pointing to the jacket he is wearing. It belonged to Kulwinder and has his name embroidered on it. Darshan Singh says his son was like a friend to him and he had been waiting to see him come home with his bride. "I didn't know we would instead be waiting for his body." What's the background? There have been at least 10 suicide attacks since 1989 but this is only the second to use a vehicle. Prior to Thursday's bombing, the deadliest attack on Indian security forces in Kashmir this century came in 2002, when militants killed at least 31 people at an army base in Kaluchak, near Jammu, most of them civilians and relatives of soldiers. media caption In December Yogita Limaye examined why there had been a rise in violence in Kashmir The latest attack comes amid a spike in violence in Kashmir that came about after Indian forces killed a popular militant, 22-year-old Burhan Wani, in 2016. More than 500 people were killed in 2018 - including civilians, security forces and militants - the highest such toll in a decade. India and Pakistan have fought three wars and a limited conflict since independence from Britain in 1947 - all but one were over Kashmir. What is Jaish-e-Mohammad?<doc-sep>NEW DELHI — India accused Pakistan on Friday of orchestrating a suicide bombing that killed dozens of soldiers in Kashmir, the worst attack there in decades, promising an appropriate response and calling on world leaders to isolate its neighbor. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack, in which at least 40 Indian soldiers were killed Thursday when a driver slammed an explosives-packed vehicle into a paramilitary convoy. But by Friday afternoon, India had recalled its ambassador to Pakistan for consultations in New Delhi. [On August 5, India revoked Kashmir’s special status.] With national elections in India set to take place by May and Prime Minister Narendra Modi facing a close contest, analysts say he risks looking weak if he does not respond. Mr. Modi was elected in 2014 on promises to crack down on Kashmir’s militants and to adopt a tougher line on Pakistan. The nuclear-armed rivals have gone to war three times since independence in 1947, with two of the wars fought over Kashmir. “We will give a befitting reply; our neighbor will not be allowed to destabilize us,” Mr. Modi said after an emergency meeting with security advisers on Friday, according to Reuters. “Our security forces are given full freedom” to respond, he added.<doc-sep>
NEW DELHI—Indian authorities said they would punish Pakistan for an attack that killed at least 40 Indian security personnel, putting India’s long-festering friction with its neighbor and the people of Kashmir at the center of political debate just months ahead of national elections. A Pakistan-based militant group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s suicide car-bombing attack on a convoy carrying Indian paramilitary policemen. Islamabad said it wasn’t behind the attack. India said Friday it was canceling Pakistan’s most-favored-nation trade status and taking further steps to try to diplomatically isolate the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised further consequences. “We are in a state of grief as well as deep anger,” he said in a speech. “However, let me tell you, the nation will counter such attacks strongly. India will not be intimidated.” The deadly attack has sparked outrage across the country, with news channels broadcasting the flag-draped coffins of the victims and their crying families. Security forces inspect the remains of a vehicle following the convoy attack, on Feb. 14. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Prime Minister Modi came to power in 2014, promising to be tough on Pakistan. The attack likely will spur debate about whether he has accomplished this goal or whether new leadership could do better. His response could set the tone for the national elections, scheduled to wrap up by mid-May. “It will be the fodder for the opposition,” said Mohammad Ashraf Wani, a retired history professor. Mr. Modi’s “government had claimed that we have contained militancy in Kashmir. They have not actually done so.” Pakistani militant group Jaish e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the attack. The group is the same one India says was behind two cross-border attacks in 2016 that killed around 25 people. Thursday’s attack, however, was unusual, local authorities said, because it was carried out by a young man from the region rather than someone from Pakistan. New Delhi says Pakistan’s military and intelligence agency allow safe haven and support for some militants who cross the border and attack India. Pakistan says there is no organized militant presence on its soil and says that it is a victim of terrorism. Jaish e-Mohammad is banned in Pakistan. Islamabad accuses India of supporting separatist rebels within Pakistan, a claim that New Delhi denies. Indian authorities say Pakistan also fans the flames of unrest from local groups in the Kashmir region. Pakistan says the turmoil is a result of Kashmir’s indigenous movement for freedom from India. The latest wave of Kashmir unrest has increasingly been backed by locals, frustrated with how they are treated by India and its huge military presence in the area. If India tries to press Pakistan further to rein in groups like Jaish e-Mohammad, which often operates openly within Pakistan’s borders, it has diplomatic, economic and military options, analysts said. After the 2016 cross-border attacks, India’s army said it carried out “surgical strikes” on what it called terrorist bases on Pakistan’s side of the so-called Line of Control, the de facto border with Pakistan. Pakistan at the time denied there was an attack. Any military retaliation by India would likely be limited, said Ajai Sahni, executive director of South Asia Terrorism Portal and Institute for Conflict Management, a New Delhi think tank. “All that you will see is some effort to save political face by this government as was the case with the surgical strikes, which was a completely worthless and counterproductive operation,” he said. Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley briefed the media after Mr. Modi’s cabinet met to discuss the security situation in Kashmir. India, he said, will “initiate all possible diplomatic steps which have to be taken to ensure the complete isolation from the international community of Pakistan, of which incontrovertible evidence is available of having a direct hand in this gruesome terrorist incident.” —Krishna Pokharel contributed to this article. Write to Eric Bellman at eric.bellman@wsj.com