2025 India-Pakistan war

India and Pakistan both are nuclear powers. 247 million people live in Pakistan, and 1.4 billion people live in India.

On April 22, 2025 terrorists associated with "The Resistance Front" (TRF) killed 26 people in the tourist resort of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. A statement issued in the name of TRF, which is believed to be an offshoot of the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba armed group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The TRF group formed after the Modi government scrapped the special status that granted special privileges to the people of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

The attack triggered outrage and grief in India, along with calls for action against neighboring Pakistan, whom New Delhi accuses of funding and encouraging terrorism in Kashmir, a region both nations claim and have fought two wars over. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to hunt the terrorists to the "ends of the earth", and India's government is accused Pakistan's government of "funding and encouraging terrorism in Kashmir".

On April 23, 2025 India immediately suspended a water treaty governing the water flows of the Indus River and revoked the visas of Pakistani nationals within its borders and given 48 hours to leave the country. It also closed one of the only land border crossings between the two countries. Pakistan responded by closing off its airspace to Indian planes and issuing a barrage of reciprocal visa revocations.

The Indian government decided to stop the flow of Indus River water to Pakistan following the termination of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. Millions of people in Pakistan are heavily dependent on water from the Indus River. On April 25, 2025 the Pakistani government warned that messing with the flow of water would be an "act of war". The threat came from Pakistan Prime Minister's Office as tensions flare between New Dehli and Islamabad. The same morning Indian forces and Pakistani forces "briefly exchanged fire". Small arms were used by both sides, but no casualties immediately reported. The gunfire violated a 2021 pledge by the two nations to observe a ceasefire along the disputed Line of Control between Indian and Pakistani controlled areas of Kashmir. Social media showed videos of military equipment being moved toward the border.

Defense advisors to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi were declared persona non grata and given a week to leave India. India would be withdrew its advisors from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

India has moved the aircraft carrier Vikrant into the Arabian Sea. Pakistan "issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen/Mariners) for the Arabian Sea and initiated a naval live fire exercise, while putting its military on full alert in anticipation of a possible military response by India in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack," The Print, an Indian news outlet, reported.

Three modern 'Rafale' fighter jets manufactured by the French aerospace corporation Dassault Aviation belonging to the Indian Air Force were known to have been shot down. Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced domestic criticism for buying such expensive and useless weaponry. Indonesia cancelled its contract to purchase 42 units of the French built Rafale valued at $8.1 billion USD over concern of the plane's performance in combat.