India envoy to US says his country at 'war with terrorists'

India's Ambassador to the US Vinay Kwatra has described the country's actions against Pakistan as a "war against terrorism" in an interview with CNN yesterday (8 May).

During the interview, he reiterated India's stand on Pakistan being the "original escalator" of tensions and said that Delhi was only responding to Islamabad's actions. 

India has blamed "Pakistan-based terrorists" for a deadly attack on tourists in April that killed 26 civilians. Islamabad has denied any links.

When asked by the CNN hosts whether India was "at war" with Pakistan, Kwatra did not give a clear answer, but when pressed, he said India was "at war with the terrorists."

He was then asked if tensions could escalate to the level of a nuclear war, given that both countries have nuclear weapons. Kwatra responded, "That's for you to ask Pakistan."

Meanwhile, Pakistan's ambassador to the US said yesterday that India and Pakistan have had contacts at the level of their respective National Security Councils, when asked if the nuclear-armed Asian neighbors had any ongoing lines of conversation.

The ambassador, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, made the comments in an interview with CNN in which he also said the responsibility to de-escalate tensions between the two countries lay with India after two days of clashes.

"I think there have been contact at the level of NSCs, but then this escalation, both in terms of the actions that have been taken and in terms of rhetoric that is coming out, has to stop," Sheikh said in the interview without giving more details about the contacts.

"Now the responsibility for de-escalation is on India, but there are constraints on restraint. Pakistan reserves the right to respond back. There is enough pressure from our public opinion on the government to respond," he added.

Many global powers, including the US, have urged New Delhi and Islamabad to de-escalate tensions and keep lines of communication open. Washington has called for direct dialogue.

Pakistan and India yesterday (8 May) accused each other of launching drone attacks, and Islamabad's defence minister said further retaliation was "increasingly certain," on the second day of major clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Two days of fighting have killed nearly four dozen people.

The latest escalation in the decades-old India-Pakistan rivalry began on 22 April when 26 people were killed in India-administered Kashmir in an attack that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad, which denied the accusations and called for a neutral probe.