In the dead of night between Tuesday and Wednesday, people along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing India and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, woke up to continuous loud explosions.
The explosions came around 1am local time, soon after India launched air strikes on several locations in Pakistan, in what it called a retaliatory action against “terrorists” to avenge the killing of 26 civilians in a deadly attack in Pahalgam, south of Kashmir.
Hafeez Wani, a resident of Karnah in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, about 100km from the LoC, told Middle East Eye that people in his neighbourhood woke up to the sound of artillery being fired.
“We were not able to step outside of our homes because of the intensity of firing from both sides. We could only hear loud bangs from inside,” Wani said.
Soon after India’s air strikes in Pakistan, the Pakistani military responded with heavy artillery shelling along the LoC, targeting Indian military posts.
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According to Indian media reports at the time of publishing, as many as 15 people have been killed and more than 40 injured in the cross-border fighting.
The casualties have been mostly reported along the Poonch and Tangdhar sectors of the Indian-administered side of the border.
“There is a lot of damage in Karnah. A lot of houses are burned. In every village, at least two to three houses are burnt. Vehicles are also damaged. People are very scared,” Wani said, whose father was killed in a similar cross-border incident in 2003.
But Wani described the fresh escalation as “very dangerous and extremely scary”.
“What we saw in the night, we have not seen something like that in our whole life. It was very dangerous. Whatever happened during the night was extremely scary,” he said.
Indian jets downed?
Pakistani military officials and several media reports say that Indian fighter jets were downed in Indian airspace. The New York Times reported that at least two jets had crashed, citing three officials, media reports and eyewitnesses.
One of the sites of the crashed planes was reportedly in Wuyan village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama. The spot had been immediately cordoned off by Indian security forces, but visuals earlier showed wreckage of a plane that had crashed into a school building, with locals and firefighters dousing the fire.
A resident of Wuyan told MEE, requesting anonymity, that he was woken up by a loud bang.
“I came out and saw the wreckage of a plane burning. And for the next 30 minutes, I heard back-to-back blasts. After a while, firefighters came and we were asked to leave,” he said.
Reuters reported that three jets crashed inside Indian-administered Kashmir and that their pilots were in hospital, citing local government sources.
Pakistan contends that it shot down five jets.
India has rejected the claims, saying their military or machines did not suffer any damage during the operation.
On Wednesday, a French official told CNN that an Indian-operated French Rafale jet had been downed by the Pakistani air force.
India launches military strikes on Pakistan
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There has been no confirmation on whether the planes took part in air strikes against Pakistan.
Another resident from the same village said he saw something burning near his house around 1am on Wednesday.
“I informed the police, and they asked me to call the firefighters. Later, the army also reached and asked us to leave the area where something was burning,” he added.
The tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after gunmen killed 26 civilians in a famous tourist spot in India-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam on 22 April.
India accused Pakistan of harbouring and aiding the attackers and vowed to avenge the killing of its civilians.
The relations between the two neighbours nosedived after India downgraded all diplomatic ties with Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty and deportation of Pakistani citizens from India. Pakistan retaliated by closing its airspace to India.
Relations continued to deteriorate amid calls for revenge by several TV news anchors, political parties, celebrities, and right-wing groups.
Indian forces then carried out what they called “precision strikes” targeting nine locations in Pakistan that they claim were “terrorist infrastructure”.
Official Pakistani sources reported that 26 civilians were killed and 46 injured in these attacks.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said they only targeted “those who killed innocents” and maintained that only “terror camps” were hit without harming any civilians.
On Wednesday, Pakistan termed the Indian air strikes “an act of war” and vowed to retaliate.
