India to hold civil defence drills in Pakistan standoff

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan conducted a second missile test and India ordered civil defence drills in an escalating stand-off over contested Kashmir that the United Nations said on May 5 has brought the two nations to the brink of war.

New Delhi blames Pakistan for an attack on civilians at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.

Pakistan rejects the accusations, and has repeatedly made clear it will respond with force to any aggression by India.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on May 5 said relations between Pakistan and India had reached a “boiling point”, warning that “now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink” of war.

The Pakistani military said on May 5 it had tested a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 120km, a launch “aimed at ensuring the operational readiness of troops”.

The missile test comes as Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi was in Islamabad for talks with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on May 5, ahead of a visit to India on May 8.

Tehran has offered to mediate between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, and Mr Araghchi will be the first senior foreign diplomat to visit both countries since the attack on April 22 sent relations into a tailspin.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said: “We will spare no effort to help de-escalate the situation between the two countries.”

Pakistan announced a previous test on May 3 of a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450km – about the distance from the Pakistan border to New Delhi. It has not said where either of the tests took place.

Mr Sharif, who cancelled a visit to Malaysia scheduled for May 9, said the launch “clearly shows that Pakistan’s defence is