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Modi says India has only paused military action amid Pakistan hostilities

Modi says India has only paused military action amid Pakistan hostilities

'We will be monitoring every step of Pakistan,' Mr Modi said in an address to the nation.
He added that India will not 'tolerate nuclear blackmailing' by Pakistan and that 'this is not an era of war, but this is not an era of terrorism, either'.
The escalating hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals, after a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir, had threatened regional peace.
Address to the nation. https://t.co/iKjEJvlciR
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 12, 2025
India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the massacre, a charge Islamabad denied.
Mr Modi spoke after Indian and Pakistani authorities said there was no firing reported overnight along the heavily militarised region between their countries, the first time in recent days the two countries were not shooting at each other.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land, in the air and at the sea on Saturday.
'The night remained largely peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir, and other areas along the international border,' the Indian army said in a statement, adding that no incidents had been reported.
Senior military officials from India and Pakistan spoke via a hotline on Monday, the state-run Pakistan Television reported.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for his part, said his country agreed to the ceasefire 'in the spirit of peace' but will never tolerate violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He spoke during a meeting with the Turkish ambassador, according to a government statement.
It gave no details, but the two sides were to assess if the ceasefire was holding and how to ensure its implementation.
Shops damaged by Indian shelling, at the main bazaar, near Jura, on the Line of Control, in Neelum Valley, a district of Pakistan's administered Kashmir (Ishfaq Hussain/AP)
Local government officials in Pakistan-administered Kashmir reported no incidents of cross-border firing along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, and said civilians displaced by recent skirmishes between Pakistani and Indian forces were returning to their homes.
Pakistan's military spokesman, Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif, said on Sunday that Pakistan remains committed to upholding the ceasefire and will not be the first to violate it.
Soon after the ceasefire announcement, Pakistan reopened all of its airports and restored flight operations.
India followed on Monday by reopening of all the 32 airports that were shut temporarily across its northern and western regions.
The militaries of the two countries have been engaged in one of their most serious confrontations in decades since Wednesday, when India struck targets inside Pakistan it said were affiliated with militants responsible for the massacre of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The tourists, mostly Indian Hindu men, were killed in front of their families in the meadow town of Pahalgam last month.
Indian soldiers in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir (Mukhtar Khan/AP)
The incident first led to tit-for-tat diplomatic measures, sending their bilateral ties to a near historic low.
The two expelled each other's diplomats, shut their airspace and land borders and suspended a crucial water treaty.
After Wednesday's strikes in Pakistan, both sides exchanged heavy fire along their de facto border in Kashmir followed by missile and drone strikes into each other's territories, mainly targeting military installations and airbases.
Dozens of civilians were killed on both the sides in heavy shelling, the two countries said.
The Indian military on Sunday for the first time claimed its strikes into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan last week killed more than 100 militants, including prominent leaders.
Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, the director general of India's military operations, said India's armed forces struck nine militant infrastructure and training facilities, including sites of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major militant strikes in India and the disputed region of Kashmir.
He said at least 35 to 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed in clashes along the Line of Control. Five Indian soldiers were also killed, he said.
Pakistan's information minister Attaullah Tarar on Thursday said his country's armed forces had killed 40 to 50 Indian soldiers along the Line of Control.
Pakistani military also claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets and inflected heavy losses on Indian military installations by targeting 26 locations in India.
Air Chief Marshal AK Bharti, director general of India's air operations, told a news conference on Monday that despite 'minor damage (s) incurred, all our military bases and air defence systems continue to remain fully operational, and ready to undertake any further missions, should the need so arise.'
He reiterated that New Delhi's fight was 'with terrorists, and not with Pakistan military or its civilians'.

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