Pakistan's defence minister said on Monday that a military incursion by neighbouring India was imminent in the aftermath of a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir last week, as tensions rise between the two nuclear-armed nations.

Pakistan’s defence minister said on Monday that a military incursion by neighbouring India was imminent in the aftermath of a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir last week, as tensions rise between the two nucleararmed nations.

Asif said Pakistan was on high alert and that it would only use its arsenal of nuclear weapons if "there is a direct threat to our existence".

Following Tuesday's massacre of 26 mostly Indian tourists, hostilities have intensified between India and Pakistan over the hotly contested Kashmir region.

"If they stop water, all of this will turn into the Thar desert, the whole country," one farmer said. "We'll die of hunger."

The Pakistani government said that if India followed through on a threat to block rivers it would take it as “an act of war.”