(OPINION) India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons, and now they are on the verge of war.

It is being reported that India is considering a military response to a horrifying terror attack that occurred in Kashmir earlier this week, and Pakistani forces are already being mobilized in case that happens.

If a full-blown war erupts, it will be a really big deal. 247 million people live in Pakistan, and 1.4 billion people live in India.

So we are talking about a substantial chunk of the global population, and if nuclear weapons are used the death toll in a war between India and Pakistan would be off the charts.

This latest crisis started on Tuesday when terrorists associated with “The Resistance Front” killed 26 tourists in Kashmir…

Suspected rebels killed at least 26 people on Tuesday in the picturesque tourist resort of Pahalgam in the deadliest such attack in a quarter-century in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A statement issued in the name of The Resistance Front (TRF), which is believed to be an offshoot of the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba armed group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is promising to hunt the terrorists to the “ends of the earth”, and India’s government is accusing Pakistan’s government of “funding and encouraging terrorism in Kashmir”…

Armed police and soldiers searched homes and forests for militants in Indian Kashmir on Friday and India’s army chief reviewed security there after the killing of 26 men at a tourist site – the worst attack on civilians in nearly two decades.

The attack triggered outrage and grief in India, along with calls for action against neighbour Pakistan, whom New Delhi accuses of funding and encouraging terrorism in Kashmir, a region both nations claim and have fought two wars over.

We have seen tensions between these two great nations reach a boiling point before, but never anything quite like this.

Following the terror attack, India immediately suspended a very important water treaty…

On Wednesday, India suspended a water treaty governing the water flows of the Indus River and revoked the visas of Pakistani nationals within its borders.

It also closed one of the only land border crossings between the two countries. Pakistan has responded by closing off its airspace to Indian planes and issuing a barrage of reciprocal visa revocations.

Millions of people in Pakistan are extremely dependent on water from the Indus River.

So it would create a major humanitarian crisis if India restricted or cut off the flow of water, but apparently that is what India has decided to do…

The government has decided to stop the flow of Indus River water to Pakistan following the termination of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, in response to the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists, sources said.

Yesterday, the Pakistani government warned that messing with the flow of water would be an “act of war”…

Pakistan warned India on Thursday that it was committing an “act of war” by suspending a landmark water-sharing treaty in response to a deadly terror attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The threat from Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office followed a number of diplomatic measures imposed by New Dehli on Islamabad as tensions flare between the neighboring nuclear powers.

We really need a third party to step in and mediate this crisis, because it could spiral out of control very quickly.

In fact, there has already been shooting.

On Friday morning, Indian forces and Pakistani forces “briefly exchanged fire”…

Indian officials have confirmed Friday that Indian and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their highly militarized frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, according to The Associated Press.

Small arms were used by both sides in the gunfight, and no casualties have as of yet been reported, a briefing by an Indian official indicated, in the first such live-fire incident since 2021.

It also violates a pledge from the same year for the two nations to observe a ceasefire along the disputed Line of Control between Indian and Pakistani controlled areas of Kashmir.

The shooting has stopped for now, but social media is full of videos that show military equipment being moved toward the border.

And it is also an ominous sign that India has moved an aircraft carrier into the Arabian Sea… FULL REPORT