India-Pak must ‘de-escalate’ tensions: US official after talks

The US has encouraged India and Pakistan to ldquodeescalate tensionsrdquo reaffirming its commitment to cooperate with Delhi against terrorism and urging Islamabadrsquos cooperation in investigating the ldquounconscionablerdquo Pahalgam terror attackSecretary of State Marco Rubio spoke separately with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday In his call with Jaishankar Rubio expressed his sorrow for the lives lost in the ldquohorrificrdquo terrorist attack in Pahalgam in which 26 people were killedRubio reaffirmed the United Statesrsquo commitment to cooperat with India against terrorism and also encouraged India to work with Pakistan to deescalate tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia In his conversation with PM Sharif Rubio spoke of the need to condemn the Pahalgam terror attack and urged Pakistani officialsrsquo cooperation in investigating ldquothis unconscionable attackrdquoHe also encouraged Pakistan to work with India to deescalate tensions reestablish direct communications and maintain peace and security in South Asia Rubio and Sharif ldquoreaffirmed their continued commitment to holding terrorists accountable for their heinous acts of violencerdquoIndia closes airspace for PakIndia has closed its airspace to all aircraft registered in Pakistan according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation India issued a Notice to Airmen NOTAM on Wednesday confirming the closure of its airspace to all Pakistaniregistered operated or leased aircraft including military flights from April 30 to May 23 estimated duration Both India and Pakistan have now blocked each otherrsquos airlines from using their airspace as the neighbouring country had already announced this step six days agoAttariWagah border shutFollowing a weeklong heavy rush of people from either side to cross over after the Union government issued a lsquoLeave Indiarsquo notice all Pakistani citizens with shortterm visas the AttariWagah border crossing point between the two countries was shut completely on Thursday sources saidSC junks pleaThe Supreme Court on Thursday refused to examine a plea seeking a judicial probe into the Pahalgam terror attackA bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh castigated the petitioners for seeking a retired judge to monitor probe into the terror attack and said retired judges were not expertsldquoIn this crucial time each and every citizen of the country has joined hands to fight terror Do you want to demoralise the security forces by filing this kind of PIL Donrsquot bring this kind of issue in the judicial domainrdquo the bench said Petitioners Fathesh Kumar Saahu and others were consequently asked to withdraw the pleaNavy flexes muscle near Pak watersThe Indian Navy has intensified its operations in the Arabian Sea conducting extensive exercises within Indiarsquos Exclusive Economic Zone EEZ to bolster maritime security amid heightened regional tensionsAccording to defence sources warships are on high alert with multiple antiship and antiaircraft firings executed recently to demonstrate combat readiness and deter potential threats in the regionThe Indian Coast Guard has also deployed vessels in forward areas near the international maritime boundary off the Gujarat coast working in close coordination with the Navy to enhance surveillance Earlier on Sunday the Indian Navy warships carried out multiple successful antiship missile firings The exercise was aimed at demonstrating the navyrsquos combat readiness Navy stated that the firings were done to revalidate and showcase the operational readiness for longrange precision offensive strikesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoeveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params