India mourns Peshawar school attack
Schoolchildren hold candles and placards as they pray in the northern Indian city of Amritsar Munish Sharma/Reuters

Dozens of Indians have taken to social media to show solidarity with Pakistan, one day after the Pakistani Taliban killed 148 people, of whom 132 were children, during an attack in a Peshawar school.

Under the hashtag #IndiaWithPakistan, many Indians are sending messages of support to Pakistani families, putting aside a history of clashes and tensions between the two countries.

The idea was promoted by Tehseen Poonawalla, an entrepreneur and newspaper columnist from Delhi.

The initiative followed the appeal of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to schools across India to join Pakistan in observing two minutes of silence to mourn the dead children.

The Taliban said they targeted the school in Peshawar, which enrols mainly army officials' children, to discourage military activity in the area.

Some have also suggested the attack was in revenge for Pakistani children's rights activist Malala Yousafzai being awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

The massacre was condemned by many leaders worldwide and also by the Afghan Taliban, deeming the carnage as "un-Islamic".

"The intentional killing of innocent people, women and children goes against the principles of Islam and every Islamic government and movement must adhere to this fundamental essence," the terrorists said.

India and Pakistan Relations

Relations between India and Pakistan have erupted into violence since the partition of British India in 1947 that led to the creation of the Dominion of Pakistan - which includes modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh - and the Union of India.

Since the partition, the two countries have engaged in numerous armed conflicts. One of the most bloody, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, caused thousands of casualties on both sides in five weeks.

The two countries have also fought wars over the hegemony of Kashmir, a region that borders both India and Pakistan and includes the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered autonomous territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan.

Pakistan has been accused by India and some western countries, including the US and the UK, of carrying out terror attacks in Kashmir.

Pakistan has accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir and more than 15 Indian army soldiers were convicted by the Indian government in 2004 for abuses carried out in the area.

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