The massacre set off tit-for-tat diplomatic measures between India and Pakistan that included cancellation of visas and a recall of diplomats. New Delhi also suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty with Islamabad and ordered its border shut with Pakistan.
Indian and Pakistani troops have also exchanged gunfire along the Line of Control that divides Kashmir into parts administered by each country.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has previously insisted that the security situation in Kashmir was stabilized after a decades-long separatist insurgency, has vowed retribution. He was expected to convene a security committee meeting on Wednesday, following a meeting with his top military and security officials.
“India has signaled a certain posture vis-a-vis Pakistan to domestic audiences in ways that makes it difficult for them not to carry out a strike in the face of a terrorist attack,” Srinath Raghavan, a professor of International Relations and History at Ashoka University in India.
Tensions have ramped up between the nuclear-armed neighbors since U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which experts have said has historically deterred violence between India and Pakistan.
President Donald Trump said the two countries will figure it out between themselves.
“They’ll get it figured out one way or the other,” he told reporters. “There’s great tension between Pakistan and India, but there always has been.”
The strategic and policy decisions surrounding Indian military actions have historically been the prerogative of its elected government, Raghavan said.
He added that the military has the “operational attitude to decide what kinds of targets they want to respond to and how they want to carry out these operations.”
“This means that there is no restraint on them,” he said. “Of course, the military will make a presentation to Modi but after that, they will get a go ahead.”
