MUMBAI INDIA— Vice President Vance stated that the present escalation between India and Pakistan was “fundamentally none of our business,” as the two countries traded blows late Thursday and early Friday evening with drones and projectiles, reaching areas that neither side had targeted in decades. Vance appeared on Fox News late Thursday, responding to a question about whether the Trump administration was concerned about nuclear conflict. “We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible,” he continued: “We can’t control these countries though.”

“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of a war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it.”

Vance stated that the administration was working to de-escalate the situation through diplomatic channels and that nuclear war was unlikely. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday he spoke with India’s foreign minister and Pakistan’s prime minister. “This might embolden both sides,” Praveen Donthi, an India analyst for the International Crisis Group, said of Vance’s remarks. He stated that the escalation between India and Pakistan is “breaching a new threshold every day, and we don’t know when it will end.” Arifa Noor, a columnist for the liberal newspaper Dawn, claimed Vance’s remarks indicated a more hands-off foreign policy. During past escalations in 2019 and 1999, Washington worked hard to reduce tensions.

The issue, she continued, is that “I do not think that there is another power that can step into this vacuum,” despite the fact that the two countries have long relied on the United States to “step in and talk the two countries off the ledge.” Now more than ever, she defined them as “two nuclear powers that are inherently in a very unstable situation.” She claimed Pakistan frequently sought international action because it perceived itself as the weaker party in its decades-long conflict with India, primarily over the disputed region of Kashmir. This Himalayan land is divided between the two countries, and each claim it entirely.

The current round of tensions began in late April, when terrorists killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, the majority of whom were Hindu tourists. India alleged that the attackers were proxies for Pakistan’s military. Pakistan denies having any link to the attack. India launched missile strikes throughout Pakistan overnight Wednesday, claiming they were in retaliation. Pakistan claimed it downed five Indian aircraft. Since then, both sides have traded drone strikes and projectiles. Donthi, of the Crisis Group, said Vance’s statements suggested that Washington may be sympathetic to India’s criticisms, and “seems to have come to the conclusion that letting this play out a little more is actually contributing to that effort to confront the threat of terror.”

Near a military cantonment in Okara, Pakistan. Residents captured footage of one careering to the ground, spinning over a field and unleashing plumes of smoke as young guys rushed out of the way. Two residents separately detailed the incident to NPR, but both sought anonymity to avoid angering Pakistani authorities, who have not commented on the incident. In a briefing on Friday, an Indian military officer said her country replied to what she called a “escalation” by sending drones to four areas in Pakistan. The escalation refers to Pakistani drones striking Indian towns overnight over a 760-mile stretch of border, from the desert town of Jaisalmer in India’s northwest to Poonch and Jammu in the Himalayan peaks of Indian-held Kashmir — places that have not been targeted in conflict for decades

“There were dozens of fireballs in the sky,” claimed Jammu resident Gowher Ahmad, 43, of the nocturnal bombardment. Although Friday was peaceful, Ahmad expressed concern about the night ahead. Jaspreet Kaur of the border village of Ajote claimed the majority of the 10,000 inhabitants had gone. “The rest of us are huddled up in the basement of a three-story building,” she told me. Karamat Hussain, from another border village, Khari, stated that many locals, including his elderly parents, were unable to evacuate due to the need to care for their cattle.

As violence increases, India looks to be cracking down harder on critics. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a famous Kashmiri preacher who advocates for the territory’s independence, told X that he was barred from attending communal Muslim Friday prayers in Indian-controlled Kashmir. He posted a video of his previous Friday sermon with the caption, “I urge both countries to urgently de-escalate and not tread on this dangerous path, which can only lead to destruction.” The social media network X also stated that it has received “executive orders” from the Indian government to restrict over 8,000 accounts, including news organizations, in a statement on its global affairs account. Those blocked appeared to include Anuradha Bhasin, a notable Kashmir-based journalist and The Wire, an independent news site based in New Delhi. Indian authorities did not respond to requests for comment.