India said earlier on Wednesday it had already launched a strike against Pakistan, two weeks after more than two dozen civilians were killed in an Indian-managed Kashmir attack.
The Indian government said its troops attacked nine locations on the side of Pakistan and Pakistan’s disputed Kashmir region. Pakistani military officials said at least eight people were killed and 35 others were injured after Punjab and its part of Kashmir were hit in six places.
Although India has attacked Pakistan-managed Kashmir in recent years and encountered nearby areas during a heightened tension, it was a conflict between two nuclear-armed states in the attacks in Punjab, a Pakistani territory outside the disputed area.
After the attack, India responded to Pakistan’s responses for seven years. The two countries fought several wars, the most recent war in 1999, and have since fallen to the brink more than once. As tensions escalate again, global leaders warn of potentially terrible consequences if both sides fail to reduce.
India said on Wednesday it had attacked Pakistan after it collected “evidence pointing to the apparent involvement of Pakistani terrorists” in a tourist area in Kashmir last month. It said its military operations were “measured, responsible and intended to be irrelevant”. It added that it only targets “known terrorist camps.”
In its own statement on Wednesday, the Pakistani government called the Indian strike a “unreasonable and blatant act of war” that “a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.”
Pakistan said India's actions “will not be eliminated” and that it will respond in “the era and location of its own choice”. Pakistani military officials said they had begun a “measurable but powerful” reaction.
At least one fighter jet descended on the Indian side of Kashmir, according to India News Channel. It is not clear which country the jet belongs to or the reason for its decline. On the side of Kashmir's Indian rule, Indian officials and residents in the Uri and Poonch region reported that Pakistan shelling killed at least three people, injured at least 10 people and damaged several homes.
At the White House, President Trump called the escalation between India and Pakistan “shameful.”
“We've just heard of it,” he said of the Indian strike. “They have been fighting for a long time. I just hope it will end soon.” Indian officials said that shortly after the strike, Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval introduced the military operation to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Mr Rubio wrote on X: “I am closely monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for restraint, adding: “The world cannot afford the military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”
However, the scale and nature of the Indian attacks are likely to cause “major revenge” from Pakistan.
India has conducted a more limited strike on Pakistan-controlled territory after attacking Indian security forces on Indian-managed Kashmir in 2016 and 2019. But Mir said this time, India “crossed two important thresholds in military operations” by hitting many locations in Pakistan and hitting the heart of Pakistan in Punjab.
India is ready for potential revenge in Pakistan, with military officials saying all air defense departments in the country have been activated, the Indian Public Broadcasting Corporation reported. Airline said several airports, including Srinagar, the capital on the Indian side of Kashmir, have closed civilian travel.
It is unclear the exact nature of Wednesday's strike – whether it was missiles launched from India or attacks from Indian fighter jets to Pakistan – it is unclear. Pakistani military said Indian aircraft did not enter Pakistani airspace for attacks.
Residents in Muzaffarabad, a capital of Pakistan, Kashmir, reported hearing jets flying over the air. They said a site in the rural area near Muzaffarabad, once used by Pakistan's militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, appeared to be targeting the strike.
A spokesman for the Pakistan Army said five other places were also under attack.
These include Bahawalpur in Punjab, Punjab, Pakistan, the home of a religious seminary associated with another Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad; Kotli and Bagh in Kashmir managed in Pakistan; and Shakargarh and Muridke in Punjab. Lashkar-e-Taiba is believed to exist in Muridke
Indian troops called their military operation Sindoor, a reference to the red and vermilion red hair worn by Indian women after marriage. It refers to the horrible nature of the terrorist attack two weeks ago, many of which wives saw their husbands being killed in front of them.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on X: “The victory of Indian mother.”
During the April 22 attack, militants opened fire on tourists in Kashmir, a region managed by India, killing 26 people and injuring more than a dozen.
The Holocaust was one of the worst attacks on Indian civilians in decades, and India quickly suggested Pakistan’s neighbors and masters were involved. The two countries fought several wars with Kashmir and they shared the region, but each region generally had claims.
The Pakistani government has denied its involvement in the attack and India has little evidence to support its allegations. Nevertheless, shortly after the onslaught, India announced a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, including threatening to destroy the flow of the main river system that provides it with water.
In Kashmir, Indian troops continued to hunt down the perpetrators, embarking on a thorough batting and arresting hundreds of people. In the days after the attack, India and Pakistan exchanged small arms along the border several times.
India's strike on Wednesday was a heightened conflict. The Pakistani government had earlier vowed to respond in kind to any Indian aggression, and both countries had the ability to cause huge damage.
India has long blamed Pakistan for its fierce separatist violence in Kashmir, a scenic racially diverse valley in the Himalayas. The fate of Kashmir was uncertain in 1947, when the British divided India (its former colony) into two countries – Pakistan, where there was a Muslim majority, and India was composed mainly of Hindus.
Soon after, the Hindu monarchs in Kashmir initially chose to keep Muslim-majority areas independently as India, as Pakistan sent a military force to occupy parts of its territory. Currently, both countries manage part of Kashmir while claiming that the entire country has no say.
Since the two countries' wars and the rise of separatist insurgents in 1999, Kashmir remains one of the most important regions in the world. Since then, these countries have repeatedly been on the brink of war, including the Kashmir bombing killing at least 40 Indian soldiers in 2019.
A radical Islamic group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed that the bombing prompted an Indian air strike within Pakistan and an Indian jet was shot down. Tensions between countries eased when Pakistan released its pilots.
Anupreeta Das and Hari Kumar Contribution report.
