Old chasm between India and Pakistan again echoes with warnings and fears

That tension intensified this week after Indian special forces conducted an operation to pursue rebels accused of killing 18 Indian soldiers earlier this month. Indian media has reported that those forces crossed the border into Burma, where they killed more than 50 militants

In a newspaper interview, however, India’s information minister, Rajyavardhan Rathore, said Indian forces had pushed deep into Burma. He called the operation a “message” to countries such as Pakistan that it will not hesitate to pursue threats outside of its borders.

“We will strike when we want to,” Rathore, a retired army officer, told the Indian Express newspaper.

The reaction from Pakistani leaders has been swift and severe — touching off a wildfire of social media comments on both sides of the border.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan warned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to think twice before threatening Pakistan.

“Those who are contemplating any kind of adventure in Pakistan must know that they will get a bloody face in the process,” Khan said. “Those who have evil designs against us – listen carefully, Pakistan is not” Burma.

Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, even brought up the possibility ofnuclear war should India ever launch a similar incursion into Pakistan. He urged the international community to intervene, telling Geo News the latest tension could prove a “harbinger of disaster” for South Asia.

[Floods link the countries in disaster]

Pakistan’s army chief, Raheel Sharif, chaired a meeting of his top commanders on Wednesday to discuss Pakistan’s worsening relationship with India.

Over the past month, Pakistani leaders have repeatedly accused India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), of sponsoring several recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Indian leaders, meanwhile, have repeatedly accused Pakistani intelligence agency of fueling discontent in Indian-controlled Kashmir while also supporting terrorist groups. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that India’s minister of state for defense, Rao Inderjit Singh, is even worried that Islamic State militants could obtain a nuclear bomb from Pakistan.

Speaking at a Delhi event on Thursday, India’s defense minister, Manohar Parrikar, declined to discuss specifics of the Burma operation, but said that “those who fear India’s new posture have already started reacting.”