#IndiawithPakistan - solidarity trends across the border on social media

Immediately following the Taliban attack, Indians showed their solidarity with Pakistan as the #IndiawithPakistan hashtag began trending on Twitter

India and Pakistan have historically had antagonistic ties. Bilateral talks of peace have failed in most cases due to the contentious Kashmir issue. But the brutal attack on an army school by the Taliban resulting in the deaths of 132 children and nine staff seems to have sent ripples of shock throughout the world. First person accounts of survivors and visuals of injured children being taken to the hospital has sparked not only outrage on social media but also empathy for the victims and their families.Tuesday’s show of support overshadowed the strained relations between the two nations, with even PM Modi reaching out to PM Nawaz Sharif on Twitter:

Today, schools across India observed two minutes of silence. 

International media like BBC and TIME report that thousands of messages were shared between the two nations.

The BBC reports that the idea originated with Tehseen Poonawalla, an entrepreneur and newspaper columnist from Delhi. Poonawalla told the BBC he did not expect the hashtag to go viral so quickly and said the inspiration for the hashtag came from #illridewithyou which began trending in the aftermath of the hostage incident in Australia.

However, some Twitter users were very critical of India’s outreach.

The IB Times reports that a Pakistani security analyst Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid blamed India for the attacks even after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. The report also said that one Twitter user even made references to the India-Pakistan 1971 war.