Pakistan returned a captured border guard to India on Wednesday, in a fresh sign of detente after a ceasefire ended four days of conflict between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
The guard was captured a day after an April attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people and sparked tit-for-tat missile, drone, and fighter jet attacks.
No group claimed responsibility for the April 22 attack, but India blamed Pakistan for backing it. Islamabad rejects the accusations and has called for an independent probe.
“Purnam Kumar Shaw, who had been in the custody of Pakistan Rangers since 23 April 2025, was handed over to India,” India’s Border Security Force said in a statement.
The handover was “conducted peacefully and in accordance with established protocols,” it added.
“I am very happy today,” Shaw’s wife Rajani, who is pregnant, told reporters following the announcement.
She had earlier told the Indian Express newspaper that before the ceasefire she had “lost all hope”.
Ceasefire holding
Pakistan’s army announced on Wednesday a new death toll from the fighting, saying India’s “unprovoked and reprehensible dastardly attacks” killed 40 civilians, half of them women and children.
It also said 13 military service members had been killed during operations.
India has said that 15 civilians and five soldiers died on its side.
Addressing troops on Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad had taken revenge for its last war with India, which led to the creation of Bangladesh from Pakistan’s then eastern wing.
“In this war, you have taken revenge for the 1971 war with India,” he told his troops.
Despite mutual claims of initial violations, the ceasefire still appeared to be holding on Wednesday.
The flare-up in violence was the worst since the rivals’ last open conflict in 1999 and sparked global shudders that it could spiral into a full-blown war.
The Pakistani military has said it downed five Indian jets without any losses of its own.
India has not disclosed losing any aircraft, although a security source told AFP at least three fighter jets had crashed on Indian territory.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a televised address to the nation Monday that Pakistan had chosen to attack rather than help it fight “terrorism”.
“If another terrorist attack against India is carried out, a strong response will be given,” he said.
Modi wrote on X Tuesday that he had met with service members involved in the conflict.
“India is eternally grateful to our armed forces for everything they do for our nation,” he said.
Sharif held a call with UN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday in which “he expressed concerns over the continued provocative and inflammatory remarks by Indian leadership, as a threat to the fragile regional peace”, his office said in a statement.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said that it rejected Modi’s “provocative and inflammatory assertions” and his “propensity to fabricate misleading narratives to justify aggression”.
“Make no mistake, we will closely monitor India’s actions and behaviour in this regard in the coming days. We also urge the international community to do the same,” it added in a statement.
Sharif also warned India about suspending a key water supply treaty, calling it his country’s “red line”.
“Don’t even think of touching the water treaty,” Sharif said after India suspended it in the wake of the attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that sparked the latest conflict.
‘Terror activities’Â
Militants have stepped up operations on the Indian side of Kashmir since 2019, when Modi’s Hindu nationalist government revoked the region’s limited autonomy and imposed direct rule from New Delhi.
A gun battle at a forest around 65 kilometres (40 miles) from Pahalgam, the site of the April 22 attack on tourists, killed three men alleged to be members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based armed group, the Indian army said Wednesday.
“The three were actively involved in recent terror activities in the region,” it said in a post on X.
“Recoveries from the operation include AK series rifles, large quantity of ammunition, grenades and other” military materials, it said.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both countries, which have fought two full-scale wars over the territory since their 1947 independence from British rule.
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