Pakistan's foreign ministry on Wednesday expressed concern at the loss of tourists' lives in the Pahalgam attack, even as policymakers in Islamabad bristled at what they billed as "anti-Pakistani rhetoric" in the Indian media.

Responding to media queries on the attack, Pakistani foreign office spokesperson Shafqat Khan said: "We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery." His statement avoided describing the attack as a terror strike.

Coming just a few days after Pakistan's army chief General Asim Munir resurrected his country's old rhetoric of Kashmir being their "jugular vein", many in India saw the attack as a result of this kind of talk. He also vowed not to leave "Kashmiri brethren in their heroic struggle that they are waging against Indian occupation".

Pakistan’s former central minister and a prominent member of the Track Two diplomacy, Sherry Rehman, said: "Unfortunately, the reflexive finger-pointing already at play against Pakistan has become the boilerplate response for a New Delhi that is unable to contain its own spectacular failures amidst a fundamentalist meltdown. Voices of reason that urge strategic stability and responsible engagement across the LoC are ignored, even ridiculed.

"As expected, the Indian Right wing will now start making shrill calls to 'annihilate' Pakistan, before one can even say 'false flag'. Probably a wasted effort to say that stridency-on-steroids is not a foreign policy."