Muzaffarabad, Pakistan: India fired missiles on Pakistani territory on Wednesday, May 7 in a major climbing of tensions between nuclear rivals, with Islamabad promising reprisals.
The Indian government said that it had attacked nine sites, describing them as “precision strikes in terrorist camps” to cashmere administered by Pakistan, a few days after having blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the side administered by India in the disputed region.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on X that India had led “cowardly” attacks against five sites on the territory administered by Pakistan, adding that Islamabad has all the right to respond to “the act of war” imposed by India.
Sharif added that the whole nation stands with the armed forces of Pakistan on “how to manage the enemy” and said: “The enemy will never be allowed to succeed in his bad intentions.”
Three civilians had been injured in strikes, which struck at least five locations, the Minister of Pakistan, Khawaja Muhammad Asif told AFP.
“We have confirmed that three civilians are killed who include a child,” said Asif.
Earlier, the Pakistani army said that the five locations included three to cashmere administered by Pakistan and two – Bahawalpur and Muridke – in the most populous province of the country's Punjab.
AFP correspondents in cashmere and punjab led by Pakistanis have heard several noisy explosions.
“We are going to retaliate at the time of our choice,” said the Pakistani military spokesman, lieutenant-general Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, calling the strikes as “odious provocation”.
Shortly after, India accused Pakistan of dismissing artillery through the control line, the de facto border in cashmere, which could be heard by AFP correspondents in the region.
India had been largely supposed to respond militarily to the attack on April 22 against the cashmere tourists administered by the Indians last month by armed men, it said that from the Pakistani group Lashkar-E-Taiba, an unintegrated terrorist organization.
This assault left 26 dead, mainly Hindu men, in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam. No group has claimed responsibility.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for supporting the attack, triggering a series of stormy threats and diplomatic tat-tat measures.
Pakistan rejects the accusations and the two parties have exchanged nighttime shots since April 24 along the de facto border in cashmere, the militarized control line, according to the Indian army.
Wednesday missile strikes are a dangerous increase in friction between the neighbors of South Asia, who have fought several wars since they obtained the independence of the British in 1947.
For days, the international community has exerted pressure on Pakistan and India to step back after the edge of the war.
Asked about strikes, US President Donald Trump told journalists in Washington that he hoped that the fights “end very quickly”.
Explosions near loc
The Indian army, in a video published on its X account after Wednesday strikes, said that “justice is done”, with New Delhi adding that its actions “have been concentrated, measured and not climbed”.
“No Pakistani military installation has been targeted,” he added. “India has demonstrated a considerable deduction in the selection of targets and the method of execution”.
You could hear Indian hunting planes flying over Srinagar, the capital of the Indian cashmere.
Strong explosions have also been heard in the city of Poonch, just 16 km from the control line.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously declared that India “would identify, follow and punish all the terrorists and their donor” who led Pahalgam on last month.
