Indian and Pakistani Soldiers Briefly Exchange Fire Along Kashmir Border

India and Pakistan have exchanged fire along their heavily patrolled and contested border in the Kashmir region, escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors just days after a terror attack killed 26 people on the Indian side of the disputed region.

Pakistani solders fired at an Indian position first and India responded in kind, according to local news reports, which said that the exchange was brief and that there were no casualties. Indian and Pakistani officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tensions between the two countries, archrivals for decades, shot up swiftly this week after militants gunned down 26 people, mostly tourists, in a picturesque meadow near Pahalgam, a popular destination in Kashmir, on Tuesday.

India has called the shooting a terror attack without blaming a specific group, but it has taken a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, with India’s foreign secretary saying there were “cross-border linkages.” India announced on Wednesday that it would downgrade diplomatic ties and pull out of a decades-old water-sharing treaty that is especially critical to Pakistan, among other measures.

Pakistan has denied any links to the attack, and its defense minister said this week that the country does not “support any form of terrorism.” On Thursday, the Pakistani government announced retaliatory measures against India, including the closing of its airspace to Indian carriers.

Its Senate on Friday unanimously passed a resolution condemning what it called India’s “frivolous and baseless” attempts to link the country to the militant attack in Kashmir, rejecting the allegation and accusing New Delhi of using “terrorism” as a political tool.