India said on Wednesday that it carried out “precision strikes” on “terrorist camps” across nine sites in Pakistan, as its neighbour promised to retaliate. Pakistan said the strikes hit civilian areas.
The two nuclear-armed states have been balanced on a razor’s edge since last month when India blamed Pakistan for a deadly terrorist attack in India-administered Kashmir.
The attacks come after Pakistan on April 30 said it had credible intelligence that a military incursion by India was “imminent” in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the tourist hub of Pahalgam.
Pakistan has vehemently denied any involvement in the attack, and India has yet to provide any evidence of the attackers’ alleged links to Pakistan.
India said that no Pakistani military facilities were targeted.
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Pakistan said that at least three Pakistanis were killed and 12 injured by the Indian missile strikes after midnight local time on Wednesday, which hit Kotli, Bahawalpur, Muridke, Bagh and Muzaffarabad.
Muzaffarabad is the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan said it was responding to the attacks and said Indian warplanes launched the strikes while in Indian Airspace, but had ”violated Pakistan’s sovereignty”.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif told Reuters that Pakistan downed two Indian warplanes and one drone in retaliation for the strikes.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, appeared on the UK’s Sky News making the same claim.
“We shot down two Indian planes and we are responding to Indian aggression right now as we speak,” he said in a television interview.
Middle East Eye could not independently confirm the reports.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on Wednesday, termed the Indian missile strikes on terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Punjab province as an “act of war” and said his country has every right to give a “befitting reply”.
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Sharif said India has carried out attacks on five places in Pakistan.
“The enemy will never be allowed to succeed in his nefarious objectives,” he said.
Indian police reported that Pakistan shelled across the Line of Control, the de facto border between the Pakistan-administered and Indian-administered Kashmir, after the strikes, injuring two women, with the Indian army accusing Pakistan of violating a ceasefire through those actions.
The two countries have been in a standoff for days. The sharp escalation on Tuesday triggered remarks of concern from world leaders.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “very concerned” about Indian military strikes on Pakistan, his spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
US President Donald Trump also raised concerns about he exchange of fire.
“It’s a shame, we just heard about it,” Trump said at the White House, after the Indian government announced its strikes.
“I guess people knew something was going to happen based on the past. They’ve been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it,” he added.
India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947.
The mountainous Kashmir region has been disputed since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, with India claiming the region as “integral” to its sovereignty and Pakistan calling for a plebiscite, including Pakistan-administered Kashmir, to give Kashmiris the right to self-determination.
Both countries accuse the other of occupying the region.
India has often blamed homegrown Kashmiri separatist groups for having links to Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.
