Twin Blasts in India and Pakistan Heighten Regional Tensions
- Olga Nesterova
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
A pair of deadly explosions in the capitals of India and Pakistan, just one day apart, have shaken South Asia and raised fears of renewed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
A car explosion in New Delhi on Monday killed at least eight people and injured more than a dozen, while a suicide bombing in Islamabad on Tuesday left twelve dead and twenty wounded, according to local authorities.
While investigators have not confirmed any direct link between the two incidents, their timing — and the political accusations that followed — have already reignited tensions only months after India and Pakistan ended a brief military conflict.
Blame and Denial
Indian officials said today that several people have been detained in the disputed Kashmir region in connection with the New Delhi blast, which authorities are treating as a suspected terrorist attack. In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif blamed “Indian terrorist proxies” for the suicide bombing near the capital’s judicial complex — though no evidence has been presented to support the claim.
A militant faction known as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which split from the Pakistani Taliban, initially claimed responsibility for the Islamabad bombing before one of its commanders later rescinded the claim. Both New Delhi and Kabul swiftly denied any involvement, as did the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which accused the government of fabricating the link.
Pakistan Declares Itself in a ‘State of War’
In an emergency address, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the country was now effectively in a “state of war.”
“Pakistan will definitely respond to this terrorist attack carried out by the Afghan Taliban. We will not tolerate this,” Asif said.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government of harboring extremist groups responsible for attacks inside Pakistan — a charge the Taliban denies. Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, Pakistan has endured a wave of cross-border attacks, and recent border clashes have further eroded relations between the two governments.
Internal Turmoil in Pakistan
The blasts come amid deepening political turmoil in Islamabad.According to NDTV, Pakistan’s parliament passed a constitutional amendment this week expanding the powers of the army chief while curbing the authority of the Supreme Court — a move critics say undermines democracy and cements military dominance over civilian institutions. The lower house approved the measure by a two-thirds majority, with only four lawmakers voting against it.
A Fragile Peace at Risk
Both India and Pakistan have been under intense domestic pressure since their brief conflict earlier this year, and analysts warn that these latest attacks could derail fragile peace efforts. For now, neither side has formally escalated military readiness — but the rhetoric, and the political momentum behind it, suggest a return to confrontation may already be underway.
