India and Pakistan have exchanged gunfire for several nights in a row as tensions between the two nuclear powers remain high. Indian authorities continue to search for the gunmen who killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday, an attack they blame on Pakistan. People in the region now fear that anger over the killings could trigger war.

MORE NEWS – CLICK HERE!

Border battle – April 29, 2025

	By Anupreeta Das I cover South Asia.

After a terrorist attack last week, India has unleashed a salvo of punitive measures against Pakistan. Most important, it pulled out of a water-sharing treaty. Pakistan quickly retaliated, closing off airspace to India.

These two nuclear-armed countries are often at loggerheads, and it’s usually because of Kashmir, a picturesque Himalayan region that both claim but neither fully controls. They’ve fought three wars over the territory, and low-grade hostility simmers in perpetuity.

Things got much worse recently, though, when the terrorist attack killed 26 people, most of them tourists, in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir on April 22. I wrote about what happened that day. India hasn’t blamed any group for the attack yet, but it implies that the perpetrators were linked to Pakistan. Experts believe that Pakistan has long sponsored terrorism in Kashmir. Pakistan denies any role in the attack.

In addition to the water and airspace moves, both nations canceled visas for each other’s citizens. That separated family members at the border. (The Times told some of their stories here.) And Pakistan suspended its participation in the agreement that divides up Kashmir.

Analysts worry things could get much worse. The attack last week caught the Indian government off guard, exposing a security and intelligence lapse. That’s embarrassing for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government in 2019 took control of Kashmir, which had been guaranteed autonomy in the Indian Constitution. Now domestic pressure could push the Indian government to go further, according to analysts.

India’s last major conflict with Pakistan happened in 2019, when a Pakistani militant used a van filled with explosives as a suicide weapon and killed at least 40 troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir. In response, India carried out airstrikes against Pakistan. Back then, the Trump administration worked to moderate tensions. This time, Trump said, “They’ll get it figured out.”

Related: Here’s what you need to know about Kashmir.