Pakistani air traffic is barred from using Indian airspace.

Tensions between India and Pakistan are heating up once again as India shuts down its airspace for Pakistani aircraft on Wednesday, April 30th, in response to Pakistan's ban on Indian planes flying over its territory on April 24th.

Many believe a military strike from India could be on the horizon after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave approval for retaliation against the recent attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, which occurred on April 22nd and left 26 civilians dead. However, no group has taken responsibility for the attack, and Pakistan has denied any involvement.

After months of diplomatic tensions, broken agreements, and canceled visas, the two countries, born out of a bloody partition in 1947, have now begun exchanging fire. For the sixth consecutive night, their soldiers, sometimes just a few dozen meters apart along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, have opened fire. Islamabad also announced that it had shot down two small Indian surveillance drones that entered its airspace in Kashmir over a 24-hour period.

Following the attack, fears of escalation between the two nations have grown. In the Indian-controlled Kashmir, security forces are conducting a massive manhunt to find the perpetrators of the attack and their accomplices. Hundreds of arrests and interrogations have taken place, and nine houses linked to the suspects of the attack and their accomplices have been destroyed. The Indian police have released the identikits of three of them, including two Pakistanis, who are suspected of belonging to a group close to LeT, the Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadist movement based in Pakistan.

Despite the escalating situation, the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has called for de-escalation in telephone conversations with both Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Rubio urged Pakistan to condemn the "abominable" attack and cooperate in the investigation, while promoting restraint in India.

In response, Pakistan's foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, stated that Pakistan will not strike first but will not hesitate to retaliate with force. The 1.5 million inhabitants of villages near the LoC in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir are preparing for the worst, making room in their makeshift bunkers. In Karachi, the economic capital of Pakistan, the stock market has plummeted, with investors fearing an Indian strike.

The ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir have led India to warn of potential drone attacks, following the downing of two small Indian surveillance drones by Pakistan in Kashmir.
General news outlets are covering the political crisis intensifying between India and Pakistan, with concerns over a war-and-conflicts scenario on the rise after the recent 22nd strike in Pahalgam, Kashmir.
The circulation of crime-and-justice headlines has increased as both nations struggle to find those responsible for the deadly strike on April 22nd, with hundreds of arrests and destroyed houses in the pursuit of the suspects in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The increasingly hostile exchange of fire between the two countries along the Line of Control (LoC) has garnered attention in the international politics sphere, as diplomatic representatives like U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urge for de-escalation.
As tensions escalate, the people of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir are preparing for potential warfare, seeking shelter in makeshift bunkers, while the stock market in Karachi is plunging due to fears of an imminent military strike from India.