Pakistan said Wednesday it anticipates an Indian military strike within less than two days, following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's green light for retaliation to the Kashmir attack.

"Pakistan will not strike first, but will not hesitate to retaliate," warned Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

Despite international calls for de-escalation, tensions escalate daily between the two nuclear powers, more than a week after the death of 26 civilians in the attack at Pahalgam, in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

New Delhi immediately accused Islamabad of the attack, which has never been claimed. Pakistan, in turn, demands a "neutral investigation" and throws back the accusation of "supporting cross-border terrorism" at its historic neighbor and rival.

Two days after the attack, following a series of diplomatic sanctions, broken agreements, and canceled visas, the two countries born in 1947 from a bloody partition began exchanging fire.

For the sixth consecutive night, their soldiers, sometimes just a few dozen meters apart on the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, fired, reports the Indian army Wednesday morning.

Pakistan does not comment, although residents confirmed at least two episodes of nighttime gunfire. Islamabad, however, announced it shot down two small Indian surveillance drones that entered its airspace in Kashmir within 24 hours.

- Under "24 to 36 hours" -

Although these skirmishes have caused neither casualties nor significant damage, "Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours, using the Pahalgam incident as a pretext," announced Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar in the middle of the night.

"Any aggression will prompt a decisive response. India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region," he warned, as the two countries together account for one in five of the world's population.

According to Modi's entourage, the ultranationalist Hindu government leader in New Delhi gave the army a free hand Tuesday to organize the "Indian response to the attack."

He told his chief of staff that they "had the freedom to decide on targets, timing, and mode of response," according to a government source, and "reaffirmed the national determination to deal a decisive blow to terrorism."

In Pakistani Kashmir, in anticipation of the worst, the 1.5 million residents of villages near the LoC are clearing space in their makeshift bunkers.

Mohammed Javed, 42, told AFP he decided to build his small underground concrete room in 2017 after a previous escalation.

"With Indian provocations, we've all gathered to clean out the bunkers. This way, in case of escalation, we can take shelter from enemy fire," he says.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has spoken separately by phone with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to urge them to "avoid" confrontation and its "tragic consequences."

Sharif said he "encouraged" Guterres to "advise India to act responsibly and show restraint," threatening: "Pakistan will defend itself (...) with all its might in case of an unfortunate Indian initiative."

The Pahalgam attack "seems to have given Modi's government the pretext it was waiting for to fulfill its desire for a military escalation," comments Dawn, a leading Pakistani English-language publication, on Wednesday.

"Even a limited strike by India could lead to a wider conflagration," warns the newspaper, advocating for "a more rational approach, avoiding provocation, and a step back."

- "Do not escalate the situation" -

The U.S. State Department announced that Marco Rubio would contact his Indian and Pakistani counterparts to urge them "not to escalate the situation."

In 2019, after a deadly attack on its soldiers, India carried out an air raid in Pakistan twelve days later, and Islamabad then retaliated. Hostilities quickly ceased, partly due to U.S. diplomatic mediation.

China, a major regional player, has again called on its two neighbors for "restraint" in order to "maintain regional peace and stability," while Riyadh says it is already in contact with its two allies to avoid an escalation.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, and since the minutes following the attack, security forces are continuing their massive hunt to find the attackers and their accomplices.

In the predominantly Muslim region, they are carrying out arrests and interrogations—2,000 people have already been detained—and have destroyed nine houses linked to the suspects of the attack and their accomplices.

Indian police have released sketches of three of them, including two Pakistanis.

They accuse them of being part of a group close to the LeT, the jihadist movement Lashkar-e-Taiba based in Pakistan, already suspected of the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai.