India launched a wave of airstrikes against Pakistan last night, bringing the two nuclear-armed neighbors even closer to the brink of war.
Officials said at least 19 people have been killed and 38 wounded after India fired missiles across the border into Pakistani-controlled territory in at least six locations.
The Indian defense ministry said its ‘Operation Sindoor’ targeted ‘terrorist infrastructure’ sites, some linked to an attack by Islamist militants on Hindu tourists that killed 26 people in Indian Kashmir last month.
Tensions have soared between the countries ever since the massacre, which India has blamed Pakistan for backing. Islamabad has denied the accusation.
Smoke billows after an artillery shell landed in the main town of Poonch district in India’s Jammu region (Picture: AFP via Getty)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated its travel advice for the region, warning against all travel within 10 kilometres of the India-Pakistan border, 10 miles of the Line of Control (the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries) and the Balochistan province of Pakistan.
‘India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,’ the Indian defence ministry said in a statement.
Pakistani officials said the strikes hit at least two sites previously tied to banned militant groups.
One hit the Subhan Mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, killing 13 people including a child, according to Zohaib Ahmed, a doctor at a nearby hospital.
At least seven civilians were also killed in Indian-controlled Kashmir by Pakistani shelling, the Indian army said in a statement.
People shout anti-India slogans during a protest after India launched missile strikes in Pakistan (Picture: EPA)
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the ‘deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks’ and that his country would retaliate.
‘Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,’ Sharif said.
Sharif has convened a meeting of the National Security Committee for Wednesday morning.
The Indian army posted on X, writing ‘Justice is Served’ and ‘Jai Hind!’, meaning ‘victory to India’. The post features the hashtag #PahalgamTerrorAttack, which refers to the deadly militant attack.
Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard on a street of Srinagar (Picture: EPA)
The Indian army has also posted: ‘Pakistan again violates the Ceasefire Agreement by firing Artillery in Bhimber Gali in Poonch- Rajauri area. #IndianArmy is responding appropriately in a calibrated manner.’
It said seven civilians were killed and 30 wounded in Poonch district when Pakistani troops ‘resorted to arbitrary firing’, including gunfire and artillery shelling, across the Line of Control and their international border.
It said it was ‘responding in a proportionate manner’.
Shortly after India’s strikes, aircraft fell in two villages in India-controlled Kashmir.
State-run Pakistan Television, quoting security officials, said the country’s air force shot down five Indian jets in retaliation but provided no additional detail.
There was no immediate comment from India about Pakistan’s claim. Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Indian forces had launched the strikes from inside Indian airspace.
Explosions have been reported across at least three areas in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan (Picture: X)
Since a 2003 ceasefire, to which both countries recommitted in 2021, targeted strikes between the neighbours are extremely rare, especially Indian strikes on Pakistani areas outside Pakistani Kashmir.
South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman said it was one the highest-intensity strikes from India on its rival in years and that Pakistan’s response would ‘surely pack a punch as well’.
‘These are two strong militaries that, even with nuclear weapons as a deterrent, are not afraid to deploy sizeable levels of conventional military force against each other,’ Kugelman said.
‘The escalation risks are real. And they could well increase, and quickly.’
US President Donald Trump called the fighting ‘a shame’ and added: ‘I hope it ends quickly.’
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement late on Tuesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum military restraint from both countries.
‘The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,’ the statement read.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has said that all domestic and international flights on the ground have been put on hold and all inbound and outbound flights are being diverted to Karachi.
Authorities have advised passengers not to come to the airport and to return home.
Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim in full but administer only in part, has been a flashpoint between the two nations since Partition in 1947.
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