At least 26 civilians were killed in Pakistan in Indian air strikes in the wee hours of Wednesday, Islamabad said, as the two nuclear-armed neighbours edged towards a broader conflict.
New Delhi said it targeted “terrorist camps” following the April 22 deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, but Islamabad said that civilian localities were bombed, leaving more than two dozen people dead and 46 others injured.
Pakistan also says that it shot down five Indian jets in response to the cross-border air strikes. While local Indian government officials say that three fighter jets have crashed in Indian-administered Kashmir, New Delhi hasn’t officially commented on the matter.
As tensions rose, India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier.
Dead were reported on both sides. India stated Pakistani artillery fire had killed three civilians along the de facto border in Kashmir.
‘Proportionate manner’
Islamabad reported earlier that eight civilians—including one child—killed in the strikes, and AFP correspondents in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.
In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, troops cordoned off streets around a mosque Islamabad said was hit by a strike, with marks of explosions visible on the walls of several homes.
Shortly after, India’s army accused Pakistan of “indiscriminate” firing across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, with bursts of flame as shells landed, AFP reporters saw.
“Three innocent civilians lost their lives,” the Indian army said, adding it was responding in a “proportionate manner”.
The Pahalgam attack, which has brought both nuclear rivals on the brink of another war, underscores widespread discontent following India's 2019 revocation of Kashmir's special status.
‘Unprovoked’ and ‘cowardly’ attack
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, calling the Indian attack “unprovoked” and “cowardly”, said the “heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished”.
Diplomats have piled pressure on leaders to step back from the brink of war.
China expressed regret and concern over Indian strikes on Pakistan, urging both sides to show restraint in response to a major escalation between its nuclear-armed neighbours.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement, adding that Guterres called for “maximum restraint”.
US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he hoped that the fighting “ends very quickly”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to top security officials in both New Delhi and Islamabad since the strikes.
India was also set to hold several civil defence drills Wednesday, while schools in Pakistan’s Punjab were closed, local government officials said.
The strikes came just hours after Modi said that water flowing across India’s borders would be stopped. Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an “act of war”.
