The Congress on Friday urged the Centre to act with firmness in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack to penalise Pakistan for its continued export of terror, and pressed for time-bound accountability into the "serious lapses" in security and intelligence in one of the most heavily-guarded regions of the country.

The opposition party made the assertions in a resolution passed by the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which was chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and general secretaries Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, among others.

"The entire country awaits accountability, answers and justice. In the face of such an unforgivable provocation, the Congress believes this is not a time for politics but a moment that calls for unity, strength, and national resolve.

"We must rise above partisan divides and send out an unambiguous message that India stands together, and will not be broken," the resolution said.

India has blocked Instagram accounts of leading current and former Pakistani cricketers, including Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Wasim Akram, intensifying its digital crackdown on influential personalities across the border in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

The list of restricted accounts also includes Test captain Shan Masood, pacers Hasan Ali and Naseem Shah, batter Imam-ul-Haq, all rounder Shadab Khan and former stars Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi.

Additionally, the account of Pakistan's former Prime Minister and cricket captain Imran Khan is also now inaccessible in India.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's YouTube channel was blocked in India on Friday amid ongoing tension between the two countries following the terrorist attack in Jammu & Kashmir's Pahalgam.

"The content is currently unavailable in this country because of an order from the government related to national security or public order. For more details about government removal requests, please visit the Google Transparency Report," read a message on the blocked channel.

The government had earlier this week blocked 16 Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly disseminating "false, provocative and communally sensitive content" about India and has also strongly objected to the BBC's reportage on the Pahalgam attack.

A group of citizens led by Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Friday filed a complaint against unidentified persons after Pakistan's flag was found painted on a road in Canacona town.

Mr Tawadkar, MLA from Canacona, mentioned in the complaint that the neighbouring country's flag was found painted at three locations.

The apparent intention behind painting the flag on a road was to insult it, but both BJP and Congress leaders took exception.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the government had not come out with any clear strategy to deal with the situation arising out of the Pahalgam terror attack, even as he asserted that the entire opposition was with the Centre on the issue.

Sharmeen Irfan, an Indian passport holder, is seeking to return to Pakistan via the Attari-Wagah border crossing in Amritsar. Ms Irfan is married to a Pakistani national in Karachi. She travelled to India, along with her children, to see her ailing mother. She wants to return to her family, but is stuck between India-Pak tensions. 

"I got married in Pakistan's Karachi, but I am from Delhi. I came here to meet my mother, she is unwell. I came here after 6-7 years. I am not being allowed to leave now," Ms Irfan told news agency ANI. "I have been coming here for the last two days. I have small children with me, they are also upset. I need to leave as soon as possible. I can't let my children go alone (to Pakistan). My other children are there (Pakistan), they are crying on video calls. I request the government to reunite me with my family," she added.

#WATCH | Attari, Amritsar | An Indian passport holder from Delhi, who is married to a Pakistani in Karachi, to return to Pakistan today
Sharmeen Irfan says, "I have been married for 12 years and have a small child. I came to India for a month to meet my ailing mother. I got the… pic.twitter.com/rJyZbznmkJ

— ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2025

In the aftermath of the terror attack on civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiankun commented that Beijing firmly opposes all forms of terrorism. And yet, China's posturing around the state of India-Pakistan relations has largely stuck to three assertions, which express its implicit support for Pakistan's position.

Read the full piece here.

After Hania Aamir's Instagram account was banned in India, a statement went viral which was "falsely" attributed to her. The viral post claimed that Hania Aamir has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider the decision of restricting their Instagram accounts. Hania Aamir shared a long post on her Instagram Stories, clarifying that the post is "fake" and she hasn't made any such comment.

Hania Aamir began the note with these words, "Recently, a statement has been falsely attributed to me and is being widely circulated on social media. I want to address this directly: I did not make this statement, and I do not endorse or align with the words being linked to me. It is entirely fabricated and misrepresents who I am and what I believe".

Pakistani actor Fawad Khan's Instagram account has also been banned in India. Upon searching for his account, a message from Instagram reads, "Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content."

Fawad Khan was expected to make a comeback in Bollywood with the film Abir Gulaal, co-starring Vaani Kapoor. However, intensified tensions between India and Pakistan following the terror attack in Pahalgam, resulted in the ban on the film.

Fawad Khan made his Bollywood debut with the 2014 film Khoobsurat, co-starring Sonam Kapoor Ahuja.

Several other Pakistani celebrities have faced a social media ban in India, including singer Atif Aslam and actor Hania Aamir.

Pakistani singer and songwriter Atif Aslam's Instagram account has been blocked in India, amid a series of actions taken by India in the wake of terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. Atif Aslam has sung over 50 songs for Bollywood movies, including "Pehli Nazar Mein" and "Bakhuda Tumhi Ho" for movies Race and Kismat Konnection, respectively.
Atif Aslam's first Bollywood song was "Woh Lamhe" from the movie Zeher in 2005.

The Chhattisgarh government has announced a financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to the family of Dinesh Mirania, a steel sector businessman from Raipur, and one of the 26 people who were killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.

"The killing of Shri Dinesh Mirania of Raipur in a terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April is extremely painful. This is an irreparable loss," wrote Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Announcing the financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh, he said, "The entire state is with his family in this sad moment. The terrorists who have carried out this heinous act will definitely be punished."

पहलगाम में बीते 22 अप्रैल को आतंकी हमले में रायपुर के श्री दिनेश मिरानिया जी की हत्या अत्यंत पीड़ादायक है। यह अपूरणीय क्षति है।
राज्य सरकार स्व. श्री दिनेश मिरानिया जी के शोकाकुल परिवार को 20 लाख रुपए की सहायता देगी। पूरा प्रदेश इस दुःखद घड़ी में उनके परिवार के साथ है। जिन…

— Vishnu Deo Sai (@vishnudsai) May 1, 2025

Dinesh Mirania and family were in Pahalgam to participate in a Bhagwat Katha event and celebrate his wedding anniversary.

The Supreme Court has stayed the deportation of Ahmed Tariq Butt, an Accenture employee from Bengaluru and his family as ordered by the government, which is cancelling visas of Pakistani nationals. After the Pahalgam attack, in a series of tit for tat actions, both India and Pakistan cancelled visas of each other's nationals.

Ahmed Tariq Butt had approached the court claiming his six-member family and he had been ordered to leave the country despite holding Indian passports and an Aadhaar card.

The court directed verification of the documents and directed that no coercive action be taken against Mr Butt, who has an MBA from the IIM in Kerala's Kozhikode, till then.

Mr Butt was also asked to approach the high court for further relief.

Lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar urged the central government to take strict action against Pakistan for their alleged connections to the recent inhumane terror attack on innocent civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir.
While addressing the politicians and other attendees at the Maharashtra Festival 2025, the Lyricist Javed Akhtar requested the Central Government to take "solid steps" against terrorism, as he believes that "a few crackers on the border" are still not enough for the lives lost in Pahalgam.

Ten days after the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, Ashanya, wife of Shubham Dwivedi, one of the 26 people who were killed, said no effective action has been taken against the terrorists so far.

"Neither has Shubham received recognition as a martyr, nor has the government eliminated the terrorists responsible for the killings," Ashanya said, in an interview with news agency PTI.

"I don't want a job or money -- just the status of martyr for my Shubham. I will carry this pain for the rest of my life." Ashanya, who now fears going outdoors, said she confines herself to a room where she spends hours gazing at Shubham's portrait and the shirt he wore during the attack.

"Even the sound of a tyre burst or a loud noise makes me tremble," she added, recalling the trauma that continues to haunt her after the attack.

Shubham and Ashanya married on February 12. The couple had gone to Kashmir with nine other family members and were supposed to return on April 23.

Kashmiri Hindus in the US are demanding greater accountability and global awareness following the Pahalgam terror attack. Dr Vijay Sazawal, International Coordinator of the Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF), claimed that the attack was a preventable tragedy.

“Thousands of tourists use this route daily, yet there was no visible security presence on the day of the attack. Despite a high-profile diplomatic visit, basic risk assessments were clearly ignored,” he claimed, as reported by the news agency PTI.

“While attention often centres on cross-border terrorism, there are also internal support structures — overground workers — that quietly sustain militant activity," Mr Sazawal said, claiming that the "progress against them has been hindered by judicial delays and administrative inefficiencies”.

Dr Subhash Kak, a Padma Shri awardee and an academic based in Oklahoma, said the Pahalgam attack underscores the fact that severing diplomatic ties or curbing trade with Pakistan is not enough.

Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto has acknowledged the country's link with terror operatives, saying that Pakistan has a past. This follows the Defence Minister Khwaja Asif admitting Pakistan's involvement in backing and funding terrorist groups.

Mr Bhutto acknowledged Pakistan's history with extremism, claiming the nation has suffered as a result and has since reformed.

In a conversation with Sky News's Yalda Hakim on Thursday, Mr Bhutto said, "As far as what the defence minister said, I don't think it is a secret that Pakistan has a past... As a result, we have suffered, Pakistan has suffered. We have gone through wave after wave of extremism. But as a result of what we suffered, we also learned our lessons. We have gone through internal reforms to address this problem..."

"As far as Pakistan's history is concerned, it is history and it is not something that we are partaking in today. It is true that it is an unfortunate part of our history," Mr Bhutto further said.

During the Vizhinjam port inauguration on Friday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijaya paid homage to the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack, stating that their brutal killing serves as a reminder of the urgent need for national unity against anti-national and divisive forces.

"Let me begin by paying homage to those who were brutally murdered by terrorists in Pahalgam last month. Their loss reminds us of the urgent need to remain united in defending our nation from anti-national and divisive forces," he said during the inauguration event.

Pakistan has announced to keep the Wagah Border crossing open for its citizens returning from India after New Delhi revoked their visas following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam that took 26 lives.

The decision comes after many Pakistani nationals in India were stranded on the Indian side of the border in Attari.

As per the statement issued by Pakistan Foreign office, "Many Pakistani patients had to return without completing their treatment, and there have been reports of families separated with some children left apart from one of their parents", adding that "while the deadline for the return of Pakistani nationals from India was April 30, the Wagah border in Lahore will remain open to receive its citizens if the Indian authorities allow them to cross the border from their side."

India and Pakistan announced the cancellation of visas of each other's nationals, as part of a response after the Pahalgam terror attack and escalating tensions.

Navi Mumbai resident Subodh Patil, who was injured in the Pahalgam terror attack and was subsequently treated in Kashmir, returned home on Thursday night. Mr Patil, 60, and wife got a hearty welcome from friends and family.

Mr Patil and his wife were a part of a group of 39 tourists who had made a trip to Pahalgam arranged by Nisarg Paryatan Tours, the police official said.

He sustained a bullet injury to his neck when terrorists fired indiscriminately at tourists in the Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam. He was at a tea stall at the time.

BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar alleged that Pakistan sent infiltrators to India to commit crimes. Mr Sarkar said that Pakistan does not want to take them back and added that their intentions will not work in India.

"Pakistan deliberately sent infiltrators to harm India. Their intentions are not being fulfilled so they (Pakistan) are not ready to take them back. Pakistan is planning to send them here and commit crimes and explosions but this will not work in India", Mr Sarkar told news agency ANI.

The anti-terror body National Investigation Agency's (NIA) preliminary report on the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam's Baisaran Valley points to an operational nexus between Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), sources have said.

According to NIA sources, the conspiracy behind the terror attack that killed 26 people, primarily tourists, was developed within LeT, allegedly under directives issued by senior ISI operatives. The plan is believed to have been formalised at Lashkar's headquarters in Pakistan.

Two terrorists central to the attack, identified as Hashmi Musa (alias Suleman) and Ali Bhai (alias Talha Bhai), are confirmed Pakistani nationals. Interrogations of detained operatives indicate that both attackers maintained consistent communication with Pakistani-based handlers, receiving specific instructions on timing, logistics, and execution.

Read more.

US Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that he hopes India will respond to Pakistan over the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 - in a way that would avoid a "broader regional conflict". He also urged Pakistan to cooperate with India to "hunt down" the terrorists involved in the attack in Pahalgam.

"Our hope here is that India responds to this terrorist attack in a way that doesn't lead to a broader regional conflict. And we hope, frankly, that Pakistan, to the extent that they're responsible, cooperates with India to make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory are hunted down and dealt with," Mr Vance said in a podcast interview with Fox News.

Pakistan Army violated ceasefire along the Line of Control for the eight consecutive night on Thursday by initiating unprovoked firing.

Small arms firing was directed from posts opposite Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Naushera and Akhnoor areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Army responded to the firing along the 740-kilometre-long de facto border.

Since the night of April 24, just hours after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistani troops have been resorting to unprovoked firing at various places along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.