Pakistan is ready to help India investigate the deadliest blast in Kashmir in decades, but will retaliate if Delhi attacks, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Tuesday as tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals soared.
"Pakistan won't just think to retaliate. Pakistan will retaliate," said Khan in a nationally televised address.
The former cricket hero went on to demand Delhi share proof of Islamabad's involvement in last week's suicide blast in Indian-held Kashmir, which killed at least 41 Indian paramilitaries.
He spoke days after the attack was claimed by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, unleashing a war of words between the arch-rivals and spurring both countries to recall their respective envoys.
India, whose leader Narendra Modi faces elections in coming weeks, has accused Islamabad of harbouring the militants and vowed "the terrorist groups and their masters... have to pay a heavy price".
Pakistan has denied involvement. Khan vowed on Tuesday that if any militant group was using Pakistani soil to launch attacks, "its enmity is with us. This is against our interest".
Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947. Both countries claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars in connection to the dispute.
Minutes after the address, Khan's official Instagram account posted a picture of the premier -- scowling and cross-armed -- along with a message that read: "Don't mess with my country".
Earlier Tuesday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi pleaded with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to intervene, saying India was threatening to "use force against Pakistan" and abandon a vital water treaty.
"It is imperative to take steps for de-escalation. The United Nations must step in to defuse tensions," wrote Qureshi in a message shared with journalists.
Mastermind killed
India's army said Tuesday it had killed the mastermind of a major suicide bomb attack in Kashmir which it blamed on Pakistan, as calls grew for reprisals over the deaths of more than 40 paramilitaries and soldiers.
Indian forces have staged operations since Thursday's attack while anti-Pakistan and anti-Kashmir sentiment has spread across the country, fuelled by social media including widely shared false news reports.
Three militants from the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) group, which claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, were killed in a gunbattle that lasted much of Monday, Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon told a press conference in Srinagar.
Two of the militants were Pakistanis, including the group's "chief operations commander" in Kashmir, the army general said.
Dhillon said the attack had been "masterminded" by Pakistan, and specifically its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence branch.
The attack on a military convoy by an explosives-packed car was the deadliest assault on security personnel in Kashmir for three decades.
Hundreds of Indian soldiers on Monday raided a suspected militant hideout in a village close to the site of Thursday's attack.
Besides the three militants, the battle left four Indian soldiers, a policeman and a civilian dead.
