India is learnt to have warned Pakistan over a hotline against repeated “unprovoked ceasefire violations” along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

“The directors-general of military operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan spoke over a hotline on Tuesday to address the ceasefire violations by Pakistan. India warned Pakistan against the unprovoked violations by the Pakistan Army along the LoC,” a source in the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

Sources said the DGMOs speak at least once a week over a hotline and the practice had not been suspended after the April 22 terror attack.

Late on Wednesday night, PTI quoted sources as saying that Pakistan airlines had been banned from using Indian airspace.

India has blamed Pakistan for the Pahalgam attack and pledged the harshest punishment for not just the militants but also the plotters of the carnage in which 25 tourists and a local ponywallah were killed.

Islamabad has denied the charge and called for a “neutral” investigation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who chaired a cabinet committee on security (CCS) meeting on Wednesday to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, is said to have given the Indian armed forces full operational freedom to determine the “mode, targets and timing of India’s response” to the attack.

Sources in the security establishment hinted at a military response sooner rather than later.

An Indian Army official on Wednesday said Pakistan had persistently violated the ceasefire along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir since the Pahalgam attack, resorting to unprovoked firing in Naushera, Sunderbani, Akhnoor, Baramulla and Kupwara.

The sources said these violations had continued for six consecutive nights till Tuesday. The Pakistan Army even extended its firing beyond the LoC to the international border in Jammu’s Pargwal sector, an area traditionally regarded as sacrosanct and rarely subjected to such aggression.

Sources in the army said the ceasefire breaches had been limited to the LoC in Kashmir until Tuesday morning. However, the situation escalated late at night when Pakistani forces opened fire along the international border in Pargwal.

According to the army, the Indian side retaliated effectively and no casualties were reported.

Security revamp

The Centre on Wednesday reconstituted the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) and appointed former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Alok Joshi as its chairperson.

Sources said the decision to revamp the NSAB was taken soon after the CCS meeting.

The meeting was held at the Prime Minister’s Lok Kalyan Marg residence and was also attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh, Union home minister Amit Shah and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.

Joshi will lead the seven-member board comprising retired officers from the armed forces, police service and the foreign service.

The other members are former Western Air Commander Air Marshal P.M. Sinha, former Southern Army Commander Lt Gen. A.K. Singh and Rear Admiral (retired) Monty Khanna, retired IPS officers Rajiv Ranjan Verma and Manmohan Singh and former diplomat B. Venkatesh Verma.

“The NSAB is a multi-disciplinary body comprising a group of eminent national security experts outside the government with the principal function of providing long-term analysis to the National Security Council,” a Union home ministry official said.