India has directly accused Pakistan of involvement in a deadly raid on a Kashmir army base that killed 17 soldiers, labelling its neighbour “a terrorist state”.

Sunday morning’s attack on the army camp near the disputed border with Pakistan was among the deadliest against security forces in Kashmir history, and sparked grief and anger across India.

The death toll could yet grow, with about 35 soldiers injured, some critically.



Four fedayeen – highly trained militants on what are essentially suicide missions – died in the three-hour assault on the base at Uri, near the militarised “line of control” that divides Indian Kashmir from the Pakistan-controlled side.

The Indian army’s director of general military operations (DGMO) said none of the four men was from the Indian side and that some of their equipment had Pakistani markings.

It claimed they were members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group alleged to have links to elements within the Pakistani government.

About 13 or 14 of the soldiers died in fires started by the militants’ incendiary ammunition, which consumed the temporary shelters and tents in which they had been sleeping. A rotation of units was under way, meaning more soldiers had been stationed on the base than usual, the DGMO said.

Rajnath Singh, the Indian home minister, cancelled an overseas trip and held an emergency meeting on Sunday afternoon with top security officials. In a series of tweets, he accused Pakistan of responsibility for the attack.

“I am deeply disappointed with Pakistan’s continued and direct support to terrorism and terrorist groups,” he said. “There are definitive and conclusive indictions that the perpetrators of [the] Uri attack were highly trained, heavily armed and specially equipped. Pakistan is a terrorist state and it should be identified and isolate as such.”

Condemning the “cowardly” attack, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, said he could “assure the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished”.

“We salute all those martyred in Uri. Their service to the nation will always be remembered. My thoughts are with the bereaved families,” he added.

India’s president, Pranab Mukherjee, said the country would not be cowed by the attack. “We will thwart the evil designs of terrorists and their backers,” he said.

Former army officials and members of Modi’s own party called for a more bellicose response than the largely diplomatic routes pursued after the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai or a January attack on a Punjab army base that killed seven.

“For one tooth, the complete jaw,” said Ram Madhav, the general secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party. “Days of so-called strategic restraint are over. If terrorism is instrument of the weak and coward, restraint in the face of repeated terror attacks betrays inefficiency and incompetence. India should prove otherwise,” he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the assault and Pakistan has denied any involvement. Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nafees Zakaria, told Reuters: “India immediately puts blame on Pakistan without doing any investigation. We reject this.”

Hostility between the nuclear neighbours was already high after a summer of violent clashes in Kashmir between security forces, protesters seeking greater autonomy or independence, and militants India accuses of being sponsored by Pakistan.

More than 80 civilians have died in the ongoing protests and human rights groups have accused Indian police of using excessive and arbitrary force. Before Sunday, separatist attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir had left 102 people dead so far this year, including 30 security personnel, 71 militants and one civilian, according to the South Asia Terrorism portal.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir as their own and have fought three wars over the former princedom since partition in 1947.

Sunday attack’s came during a week of diplomatic wrangling between the pair. Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has promised he will use a speech to the UN general assembly on Wednesday to “emphatically highlight” alleged human rights abuses against protesters by Indian authorities.

Last week, Indian diplomats at the UN human rights council raised for the first time Pakistan’s alleged mistreatment of its own separatists in Balochistan, a restive province in the country’s south-west.

Sunday’s attack is likely to prove a decisive blow to the latest tentative peace process between Islamabad and Delhi, which has been frozen since an attack in January by Pakistan-based militants against an air force base in Pathankot, Punjab.



It appeared progress was being made when Modi flew to Lahore in December for a surprise meeting with Sharif, but disputes over the investigation of the Pathankot attack had chilled relations again.