MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan: India fired missiles at Pakistani territory early Wednesday (May 7) in a major escalation of tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, with Islamabad vowing retaliation.
The Indian government said it had attacked nine sites, describing them as “precision strikes at terrorist camps” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-administered side of the disputed region.
Three civilians had been wounded in the strikes, which hit at least five locations, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told AFP.
“We have confirmed reports of three civilians killed that includes one child,” Asif said.
Earlier, Pakistan’s military said that the five locations included three in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and two – Bahawalpur and Muridke – in the country’s most populous province of Punjab.
AFP correspondents in Pakistani-run Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.
“We will retaliate at the time of our choosing,” said Pakistani military spokesman Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, calling the strikes a “heinous provocation”.
Shortly after, India accused Pakistan of firing artillery across the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, which could be heard by AFP correspondents in the region.
India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the Apr 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month by gunmen it said were from Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
That assault left 26 people dead, mainly Hindu men, in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam. No group has claimed responsibility.
New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.
Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since Apr 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised Line of Control, according to the Indian army.
Wednesday’s missile strikes are a dangerous heightening of friction between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they gained independence from the British in 1947.
For days, the international community has piled pressure on Pakistan and India to step back from the brink of war.
Asked about the strikes, US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he hopes the fighting “ends very quickly”.
EXPLOSIONS NEAR LOC
The Indian army, in a video posted on its X account after Wednesday’s strikes, said “justice is served”, with New Delhi adding that its actions “have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.
“No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted,” it added. “India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”.
Indian fighter jets could be heard flying over Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir.
Loud explosions could also be heard in the town of Poonch, only about 16km from the Line of Control.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said India would “identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer” who carried out the attack at Pahalgam last month.
