Pakistan has ramped up its military posture along the Line of Control (LoC), deploying reinforcements and initiating unprovoked machine-gun fire on multiple Indian forward posts, defence sources confirmed on Thursday.
The escalation follows India’s move to consider a robust response to the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 28 lives on 22 April.
At the core of Islamabad’s military mobilisation is the deployment of Chinese-made SH-15 howitzers, inducted by Pakistan over the past three years, alongside the repositioning of certain army units from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa towards the LoC.
These movements were reported by senior officials familiar with operational developments who requested anonymity.
“The Pakistan Army’s actions betray its fear. Our deployment along the LoC is robust,” one of the officers said.
Tensions heightened further after the Indian government shut its airspace to aircraft registered in or operated by Pakistan on Wednesday, mere hours after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, convened to assess the security situation in Jammu & Kashmir.
A day earlier, Modi had authorised the armed forces “complete operational freedom to choose the mode, targets, and timing of the response” to the Pahalgam attack.
On Thursday, the Pakistan Army targeted Indian positions in the Kupwara sector, violating the 2021 ceasefire accord for a seventh consecutive day. Indian forces, however, returned a “measured but effective response”, the officials said. Posts in the Uri and Akhnoor sectors were also reportedly fired upon.
According to intelligence inputs, there are two active terror launch pads in Leepa and Jura facing the Kupwara region—locations that have seen repeated activity since the Pahalgam massacre. Over 40 such launch pads are said to be operational across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), often used as staging grounds for infiltration attempts.
“Pakistan knows it has committed a big blunder, and it is certain of India’s retribution. The current build-up across LoC is a defensive move with possible pre-emption inherent in it,” said Lieutenant General B S Jaswal (retd), a strategic affairs commentator.
Meanwhile, in an unusual departure from recent patterns, Pakistani forces also opened fire across the International Border (IB) on Wednesday—the first such instance since the April 22 attack—targeting Indian positions in the Pargwal sector near Jammu. Sectors including Naushera, Sunderbani, Baramulla and Kupwara witnessed cross-border exchanges, signalling a clear effort to widen the arc of hostility.
DGMO-level talks between the Indian and Pakistani armies took place on Tuesday, where the Indian side lodged a protest against the ceasefire violations. Such talks are a weekly protocol aimed at maintaining stability along the frontier.
According to defence officials, Pakistani troops had violated the February 2021 ceasefire pact nearly 15 times between January and early April this year. However, the current intensity and geographic spread of hostilities mark a significant escalation, with simultaneous attacks across LoC and IB sectors.
Diplomatically, India has responded with a string of punitive measures—suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, downgrading bilateral diplomatic ties, expelling Pakistani nationals, and sealing the Attari-Wagah land border.
Pakistan, in turn, retaliated by closing its airspace to Indian carriers, halting bilateral trade, and threatening to walk away from foundational accords such as the Simla Agreement. Both sides, however, have so far stopped short of formally abandoning the ceasefire agreement.
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