India conducted airstrikes in Pakistan, targeting what it described as terrorist infrastructure. The strikes followed a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people. Pakistan reported civilian casualties from the Indian strikes and vowed retaliation.
Pakistani officials reported at least 26 civilian deaths and 46 injuries due to the Indian strikes. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the action as a 'cowardly attack' and a 'blatant act of war', stating his country would retaliate. Pakistan also claimed to have shot down Indian aircraft.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern and urged both countries to exercise maximum restraint. The situation represents a significant escalation in tensions between the two nuclear powers.
The escalation followed a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which severely damaged bilateral relations. Cross-border exchanges of fire had been occurring in the days leading up to the Indian airstrikes. India has also suspended a key water treaty with Pakistan and threatened to cut off water supplies.
India has conducted what it has described as “precision strikes” in neighbouring Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian side of the contested region that killed 26 people.
At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 injured by the Indian strikes, according to Pakistani officials.
The Indian government said in a statement that nine non-military targets had been hit in the strikes, in what it called “Operation Sindoor.”
“A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” the Indian government said.
New Delhi said its actions had been “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”. It had displayed “considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”, it added. The Indian army, in a video on X, said “justice is served.”
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks at five locations in Pakistan” 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.
[ Timeline: India-Pakistan clashes are worst between two neighbours in decadesOpens in new window ]
Sharif has convened a meeting of the National Security Committee for Wednesday morning. He said his country and its forces “know very well how to deal with the enemy. . … We will never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious objectives.”
Pakistan had shot at least two Indian air force jets down, the director general of the media wing of Pakistan’s armed forces Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said. Separately a senior security official, requesting anonymity, said the military had shot down three Indian jets.
The United Nations has called for maximum restraint from both India and Pakistan. “The secretary-general [António Guterres] is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,” the spokesperson said. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”
The development marks a dramatic escalation in the long-simmering conflict between the neighbouring nuclear powers. Bilateral ties between the two countries plummeted after gunmen killed 26 mainly Hindu civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir last month.
India attacked Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday with several deaths reported. Pakistan is calling the assault a 'blatant act of war'.Cross-border exchanges of fire started two days after that attack at a small meadow near Pahalgam in Indian-controlled part of the territory, with gunfire exchanged nightly since April 24th along the de facto border in Kashmir.
The two sides also announced sweeping tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic sanctions – including cancelling visas for each other’s citizens.
Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday warned that water from India flowing into neighbouring countries including Pakistan would be stopped, days after suspending a key water treaty with Islamabad. - Guardian
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