Leader says Pakistan ready to face India

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s prime minister on Thursday authorized the armed forces to “respond decisively and comprehensively to any aggression or misadventure” by neighboring India, as tensions soared between the nuclear-armed rivals.

India has vowed a “jaw-breaking response” to a suicide bombing in the disputed Kashmir region last week that killed 40 Indian soldiers. It was the worst attack on Indian forces since the start of the Kashmir insurgency in 1989.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the order in a government statement released after a meeting of his national security advisers. It said Pakistan was “not involved in any way, means or form” in the attack, which it said was “conceived, planned and executed indigenously.”

In the statement, Pakistan reiterated its offer to help investigate the attack and to take action against anyone found to be using Pakistani soil for attacks on India.

India has long accused Pakistan of harboring and aiding Islamic militants who target its forces in Kashmir. The Himalayan territory is split between Pakistani and Indian zones of control, but both countries claim it in its entirety, and they have fought two wars over it. An insurgency broke out in Kashmir in 1989, demanding independence or union with Pakistan.

Pakistan denies supporting militants, and has blamed the violence in Kashmir on what it views as India’s military occupation of the territory.