Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service, coming to live from London with me, Sean Lay.

Eight days after Kashmir experienced the worst violence attack on civilians in a quarter of a century,

India and Pakistan, both countries that claim it, both that control only part of it, are doing

nothing to lower the temperature between them. There are reports of gunfire being exchanged overnight

Tuesday into Wednesday over what's known as the line of control, which separates Indian-controlled

Kashmir from Pakistan. On Wednesday, Pakistan's information minister at Oula Tara said his country

possessed credible intelligence that

India is planning to attack. Being a responsible state, Pakistan open-heartedly offered a credible,

transparent and independent investigation by a neutral commission of experts to ascertain the truth. Unfortunately,

rather than pursuing the path of reason, India has apparently decided to tread the dangerous

path of irrationality and confrontation, which will have catastrophic consequences for the

complete region and beyond.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, has been holding what are described as high-level

security meetings. Before we discussed today's event, some context about Kashmir's disputed status.

When the British finally pulled out of India in 1947, some of its states, which had been part

of the British Empire, were given the power to choose whether to be part of a majority Hindu

India or Pakistan, a new Muslim majority nation. Kashmir was majority Muslim, but it's ruler

Hindu. India ended up in control, but for almost 80 years now, the two countries

have argued and sometimes fought over it. They can't even agree what to call it. Jamu Kashmir

is what India calls it. Azad Kashmir is Pakistan's name. Last Tuesday, a group of 26 Indian

tourists, all men, were shot to death near Pahelgan. Since authorities have conducted extensive searches in Indian-administered Kashmir,

detaining more than 1,500 people for questioning.

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