Pakistan has offered to participate in an independent international investigation of the attack.

India should agree to it if it has nothing to hide.

Excerpts of NY Times story on Pahalgam:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmi...

In the briefings to diplomats at the foreign ministry, Indian officials have described Pakistan’s past patterns of support for terrorist groups targeting India, diplomatic officials said. The Indian officials have said their investigation is continuing, and made brief references to technical intelligence tying the perpetrators of last week’s attack to Pakistan, including facial recognition data.

The lack of strong evidence offered so far, analysts and diplomats said, pointed to one of two possibilities: that India needs more time to gather information about the terrorist attack before striking Pakistan, or that — in a time of particular chaos on the world stage — it feels little need to justify to anyone the actions it plans to take.

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The lack of clarity may help explain why India has pointed largely to Pakistan’s past support of terrorism in Kashmir to make its case for a military reprisal now. But that approach, before India has laid out its evidence even in private diplomatic discussions, has raised some eyebrows considering the gravity of the escalation. One diplomat privately wondered: Do you want to go to war with a nuclear-armed neighbor based just on past patterns?

Fidato
@tequieremos
Barkha I’ll tell you with an example why the world doesn’t take India’s allegations seriously:

After the Samjhauta Express bombing in 2007 which killed 68 people, India immediately blamed ISI without an evidence. However, at the first Indo-Pak meeting of the Joint Terror…

https://x.com/tequieremos/status/1916063639834137023

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barkha dutt
@BDUTT
Am truly shocked by the marginal, virtually non coverage of the Pahalgam Terror attack in the American media , ignorance, insularity and self obsession-hence even tougher to take huffy puffy op-eds on India seriously. They just don’t get us.

https://x.com/BDUTT/status/1915554121752735803

From The Economist:


India must prove Pakistan’s complicity in the attack in Kashmir

It would then have every right to strike back

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/04/29/india-must-prove-pakis...

Indian government Bans 4PM YouTube News Channel Citing National Security Threat, Founder Calls It Murder of Democracy

https://www.thequint.com/news/india/4pm-youtube-channel-ban-india-n...

YouTube news channel '4 PM,' with 7.3 million subscribers, was banned on Tuesday, April 29, following an order issued by the Indian government citing 'national security or public order.'

A message on the 4PM YouTube page now reads: 'This content is currently unavailable in this country due to an order from the government related to national security or public order.'

----
'May be Due to Pahalgam Videos'
Speaking to The Quint, Sharma claimed that while no detailed explanation has been provided by the government yet, he suspects that the recent videos on the channel about the Pahalgam attacks may be the reason.

Since the April 22 attack, several videos on the channel have been critical of the government, with some featuring captions like 'Laal kaaleen par Amit Shah ka swaagat. Mritakon ko shraddhanjali dene gaye the ya tamasha banaane?' (Amit Shah welcomed on a red carpet. Was he there to offer condolences to the dead or to put up a show?) and 'Sindhu samjhauta todne ki hawabzi ko lekar phas gaye Modi, Pakistan ko paani kam nahi, zyada mil raha hai' (PM Modi faffing about the Indus water treaty, Pakistan is getting more water, not less)."

Sharma added that he did not receive any prior notice, and the authorities did not flag any specific video as a 'threat to security.'

"We don't make videos against our country. Our nation is our first priority. The only thing we did was ask questions about the Pahalgam attack. Why was there no security at the time of the attack? Why were tourists allowed in Baisaran Valley? These are reasonable questions and should be asked," Sharma told The Quint.
In a statement posted on X, Sharma had earlier called the move an attack on the freedom of the press.

'Under the pretext of national security, the government is trying to curb a strong voice of democracy,' he wrote. 'Modi is not the country. Questioning the government should not be a crime. In a democracy, we have the right to raise our voices.'"

'----

During the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections, the channel was briefly taken down for four to five days, but legal proceedings ultimately ruled in its favor, he said.



"As you can see, this is not the first time this has happened. I have always been a target for the government, and they have repeatedly launched investigations against me. My channel is one of the biggest political commentators, and the fact that we run it from Uttar Pradesh is something the government cannot digest."
Sanjay Sharma, Editor-in-Chief of 4PM
When asked if he plans to take any legal action, Sharma said, "I have written an email to both the Ministry and YouTube, asking which video they deemed to be a security threat. I would have taken corrective action had we been informed, but the government decided to proceed arbitrarily without providing any prior notice."

"We have a population of 140 crores. Shouldn't we question the government if we have any security concerns? Isn't it our responsibility to ask why there wasn't any security in Pahalgam? Asking questions is not a national security threat; it's the opposite of that."
Meanwhile, Sharma has said that the channel will continue operating through its regional platforms and has urged people to subscribe to them.

The ban on 4PM marks the second major digital takedown in 48 hours. This comes a day after the Indian government blocked 16 Pakistani YouTube channels, including Dawn and Geo News, for allegedly spreading false narratives about the Pahalgam terror attack and India's military response.

Earlier, the government also issued a notice to BBC India regarding its 'incorrect' terminology that referred to the Pahalgam terrorists as 'militants.'

Pakistan Air Force showcases advanced Chinese weapons as tensions escalate with India | South China Morning Post

The PAF releases footage highlighting its ‘potent’ PL-15 missiles and a radar system described as a ‘game-changer’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3308808/pakistan-a...

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has released footage showing it has armed its combat aircraft with long-range Chinese missiles.

The footage, published online on Tuesday comes amid spiralling tensions with India following a terrorist attack in Kashmir last month that killed 26 people. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for the incident, but Islamabad has denied any links to the attackers.
The three-minute video showed warplanes, including the JF-17 fighter, armed with Chinese-made PL-15 missiles and described them as the “PAF’s potent punch”.

The PL-15, originally developed for the fifth-generation J-20 stealth fighter, is China’s most advanced fighter-to-fighter missile and is reported to have an engagement range of 200km to 300km (125-185 miles).

Although other weapons that featured in the video were labelled as being the export version, the PAF did not say



However, military analysts also said Pakistan’s biggest advantage was likely to lie in the Chinese-made active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system fitted to the JF-17.

Jointly developed by Pakistan and China, the JF-17 is a lightweight, fourth-generation multirole fighter. The planes have featured in previous clashes between the Indian and Pakistani militaries and are confirmed to have shot down an Indian MiG-21 in 2019.

Retired Taiwanese major general Li Cheng-chieh told the Taiwanese broadcaster CTi on Tuesday that the Chinese-made KLJ-7A radar was the “real game-changer” for the JF-17, adding that “situational awareness is the first priority in modern warfare”.



The KLJ-7A can detect fighter-sized targets at 170km and track them at 120km. It can simultaneously monitor 15 targets and engage four.

India’s air force is equipped with Russian MiGs and French Rafale jets, but the Doppler radar fitted to the latter has a lock-on range of 60km and is no match for the system used by the PAF, according to Li.
“The KLJ-7A offers 360-degree coverage and can lock on to threats at more than twice the range of the Rafale’s radar,” Li said.

Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, also said radar and air-to-air missiles were the key elements in modern aerial warfare and said: “This shift allows lightweight platforms like Pakistan’s JF-17 to challenge India’s heavier jets.”

Fu said Pakistan’s advanced Chinese-made equipment could create a clear asymmetric advantage. “If tensions escalate, the side that sees first and fires first may well reshape the balance of power in South Asia’s skies.”

--------

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, which cited an unnamed Pakistani military official, four Indian Rafale fighter jets were detected over the disputed region and later retreated after Pakistan scrambled its own warplanes.

The PAF video also featured an array of other Chinese made weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, early warning aircraft and the J-10CE, another fourth-plus generation multirole fighter.



Data released by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China in 2022 suggested the J-10CE matched the PLA’s J-10C, with a top speed of Mach 1.8, a service ceiling of 18,000 metres (59,000 feet), and a combat radius of 1,240km – extendable to 2,600km with refuelling.



The J-10CE reportedly features 1,200 transmit-receive radar modules – about 50 per cent more than the Rafale – giving it an edge in beyond-visual-range combat.

Retired Air Commodore Khalid Farooq told Pakistan’s Public News channel on Saturday that the J-10CE surpassed the Rafale in key combat areas. “India has just bought Rafale … a good aircraft, but we are ahead in first-look and first-shot capability,” he said.

Pravin Sawhney ( Indian Defense Analyst, Retired Indian Army Officer)
@PravinSawhney
Chinese senior analyst Victor Gao has said what I have been saying since August 2019 when the Modi government mindlessly revoked 370 - without any thought to its security implications.
It is no longer binary about India & Pakistan. It is instead triangular matrix of India, China & Pakistan where China & PLA will openly support & help secure Pakistan's sovereignty & standing in the world. Explained further:
1. India cannot win a conventional war with Pakistan since it will have PLA support
2. India nuclear triad will be rendered useless as PLA has enough capabilities to wreck it before use.
These are facts. Indian nationalism & jingoism cannot change the ground realities. My saying this does not make me anti-national but makes the Indian veterans who thump their chests in TV studios, sound stupid to the world - which has changed!

https://x.com/PravinSawhney/status/1918324103850967205

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𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦
@OopsGuess
CNN India tried to provoke Dr. Victor Gao, ex-translator of Deng Xiaoping, on China’s support for Pakistan.
The response? Calm, firm—and devastatingly clear:

🇨🇳“Never underestimate China’s commitment to Pakistan’s sovereignty.”
🇵🇰“China-Pakistan are all-weather strategic allies. China always stands with Pakistan”

When India demanded Pakistan investigate terror groups, China supported the call.
Now China demands India do the same—with no double standards.
And yes, Beijing knows who’s been stirring the fire behind the scenes. 👀

This is not neutrality.
This is strategic alignment—with Pakistan.

https://x.com/OopsGuess/status/1918276044442005836

War As Spectacle: How Indian Media Stages A Battle Before First Bullet

By Rohineet Singh

https://thefridaytimes.com/05-May-2025/war-as-spectacle-how-indian-...

Indian news channels seem less concerned with informing or sensitising the public, and more invested in inflaming their sentiments.

Even before the armed forces could finalise their inventory for a possible strike along the eastern border, TV channels had already gone full throttle, detailing India’s military strength and presenting hypothetical battle plans. Facts or classified status of the information were never a concern.

Instead of reflecting on events or promoting democratic discourse, this rush to create media narratives only gives Pakistan a reason to argue that it is being scapegoated

Rather than pursuing balanced reporting or demanding accountability, most of India’s media have once again chosen to amplify war rhetoric—stoking public anger, creating fear, and sensationalising an already sensitive situation.

While Pakistan may appear the obvious target, pseudo-nationalist sentiment has turned Indian Muslims and young Kashmiri boys into scapegoats—both in the valley and across the country.

In fact, perhaps the Indian government should consider sending the chiefs of the three armed forces on vacation. They could appoint the likes of Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, to launch missiles from his Mumbai studio, and Navika Kumar to lead the battalion.

After all, why shed the blood of soldiers on the border when hyper-nationalist journalists have volunteered to take on the war?

Every Indian news channel is filled with provocative headlines. Republic TV aired titles like “Avenge Pahalgam Attack” and even called for a “Final Solution” for Pakistan and Indian Muslims.

According to a detailed post by Indian media watchdog Newslaundry, many newspapers and TV channels have been complicit in this frenzy.

Times Now ran segments proclaiming, “Will gun down every terrorist.” Zee Media explained diplomatic strikes on Pakistan in great detail, boasting about India’s arsenal and the ease with which Pakistan could be wiped from the map. Whether the information was classified or verified never became part of the conversation.

Aaj Tak, part of the India Today group, had anchors yelling dramatic headlines like “Ghati me aatank par akhri war kab?” (When will the final blow on terror in the valley happen?). Its reports included on-ground footage of reporters peeping inside hollow tree trunks—as if conducting reconnaissance for war.

After the Indian government's decision to suspend the Indus Water Treaty, news channels screamed that Pakistan would now “die of thirst.” There was no time to verify treaty facts or realise that stopping river flows might flood northern India. But the idea that “India will stop the river and Pakistan will die” was good enough for TRPs. Facts could wait.

Pravin Sawhney
@PravinSawhney
News that Pakistani hackers have hacked some Indian military websites.
I am not surprised.
1. Remember Pakistan-China iron clad all weather strategic partnership
2. Cyber attacks are non-attributable. They can easily be done by one country with evidence pointing to another.
3. In any case, Pakistan military (PAF) has been working on cyber fires since 2023 - surely with help from the PLA
4. If these cyber attacks increase, assess them as signs of first Salvos of war
5. India's cyber offensive capabilities are negligible since DRDO has never given priority to nanotechnology, which is at the heart of cyber fires.
So, time for Modi government to decide what it wants to do- the initiative has rolled on to the other side!

https://x.com/PravinSawhney/status/1919378663557972366

Rahat Indori will live on in the souls he touched

Link between Pahalgam and Indian state elections?


Sarhadon par tanav hai kya / zara pata toh karo chunav hai kiya (Is there tension on the border / Find out if there’s an election round the corner)

Jim Sciutto
@jimsciutto
New: A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan, in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat.

Pakistan claimed earlier Wednesday to have shot down five Indian Air Force jets in retaliation for Indian strikes, including three Rafales. Indian officials are yet to respond to the claim.

The French official told CNN that French authorities were looking into whether more than one Rafale jets were shot down by Pakistan overnight.

https://x.com/jimsciutto/status/1920142813498311108

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https://www.eurasiantimes.com/1st-ever-rafale-shootdown-has-india-c...

It is worth noting that earlier, Pakistan had claimed that it had jammed four Indian Rafale fighters flying close to the Line of Control (LoC) on the night of April 29-30, forcing them to retreat and make emergency landings. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif claimed that Pakistan jammed Indian Rafale fighters using Chengdu J-10C fighters.

----------------
French Intelligence Official Confirms Indian Rafale Jet Fighter Loss in Combat with Pakistan

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/india-pakistan-attack-kashmir-t...


A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN today that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan, in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat.

---------------

Did Pakistan really shoot down five Indian fighter jets?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/05/07/did-pakistan-real...

In the early hours after the attack, images of previous Indian fighter jet crashes were circulated on Pakistani social media as “proof” of a successful counter-strike. One, from a 2021 crash, showed the smoking tail of a MiG-29 jet.

But reports of jet crashes were soon corroborated from the ground. Local government sources told Reuters that three Indian jets had indeed crashed inside Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The reports mirrored a story in The Hindu, but that was swifty deleted by the newspaper under apparent pressure from the Indian government.

“There is no such on-record official confirmation from India,” the Hindu said as it apologised for what it called an error. “We regret that it created confusion among our readers.”

Residents ‘saw wreckage footage’
Early on Wednesday morning, Dar Yasin, a photojournalist with the Associated Press, raced to the outskirts of Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir.



He managed to slip past Indian authorities to take pictures of what appears to be the mangled wreckage of a downed fighter jet.

“Locals told me they saw a huge ball of fire emerging from the accident site and the wreckage was burning for…hours,” Mr Yasin told AP from the scene. Several locals also took and shared video of the wreckage on social media, before being ushered away from the scene.

Images of a burned aircraft engine appear to be of the M88 engine typically used in Rafale jets, said Andreas Rupprecht, an expert in Chinese military aviation.

Some 370 miles further south, villagers in Akhali Kurd in the province of Punjab were jolted awake early in the morning by a loud explosion. Scrambling out of bed, they also found the wreckage of an aircraft, The Indian Express reported.

Chinese fighter jet maker's shares soar, French Rafale's maker's shares fall.

https://evrimagaci.org/tpg/chengdu-aircraft-shares-surge-after-paf-...

Tensions escalate as Pakistan retaliates against Indian airstrikes, impacting global defense stocks.
On May 7, 2025, shares of China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC), the manufacturer behind the JF-17 Thunder and J-10C fighter jets, surged following a dramatic escalation in military tensions between Pakistan and India. The rise in stock prices came after the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) successfully downed multiple Indian military aircraft, including three Rafale jets, amid a backdrop of airstrikes that left 26 civilians dead and injured 46 others in Pakistan.

According to reports, the Indian Air Force launched airstrikes targeting six locations within Pakistan overnight, with some of the strikes hitting mosques. This prompted a swift and powerful military response from Pakistan. The PAF reportedly shot down five Indian aircraft and drones, including the aforementioned Rafales, a MiG-29, and a Sunhui surveillance aircraft. The immediate aftermath of these events saw CAC's stock jump by an impressive 18.18%, reflecting a surge of investor confidence in the performance of the Chinese-made jets utilized by the PAF.

In stark contrast, shares of Dassault Aviation, the French company responsible for manufacturing the Rafale jets, plummeted by 6% in the Varpi stock market. Analysts attributed this downturn to the reported losses suffered by the Indian Air Force’s Rafale fleet during the confrontation. The Rafale jets, celebrated for their advanced capabilities, are among the most sophisticated aircraft in the Indian Air Force’s arsenal, making their loss a significant blow to India's military reputation.

On Tuesday, May 6, Dassault Aviation’s shares fell sharply after Pakistan announced that its air force had shot down five Indian fighter jets, including three Rafales. Pakistani defense sources reported that the destroyed aircraft not only included the Rafales but also a MiG-29, a Su-30, and a surveillance drone. These aircraft had attempted to target Pakistani territories while remaining in Indian airspace, but the PAF successfully tracked and intercepted them.

Despite India's claims of having shot down Pakistani aircraft, Pakistani defense spokesmen dismissed these assertions as baseless and deceptive. One spokesman stated, "No aircraft of ours was downed, nor did we suffer any loss. This is just an attempt to deceive the Indian public to avoid mourning the death of the Rafale." The spokesman emphasized that the PAF had intercepted all Indian aircraft and safely returned all Pakistani planes.

The dramatic events surrounding the airstrikes and subsequent aerial engagements have not only affected stock prices but have also raised questions about the efficacy of India’s military strategy and the reliability of its advanced fighter jets. The outcome of the Rafale jets in this confrontation has been characterized as both a technical failure and a diplomatic embarrassment for India.

Zhao DaShuai 东北进修🇨🇳
@zhao_dashuai
Pakistan was able to accurately track and destroy air targets inside Indian air space.

This means, the C4ISR capabilities of Pakistan is miles ahead of India. Providing Pakistan with 1 way transparency.

Pakistan saw every step made by India.

C4ISR stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.

This capability is crucial for network-centric warfare.

So this victory by Pakistan, is not only a victory of individual weapon systems, it's a victory of the entire Pakistan air warfare system over India.

India is thoroughly outclassed.

https://x.com/zhao_dashuai/status/1919982334948061460