India carried out targeted attack on Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday night in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed the lives of 26 people in Jammu & Kashmir, on April 22. Pakistan claimed that it had shot down five Indian fighter jets.
India said it hit nine Pakistani terrorist sites, some of which were linked to the Pahalgam terror attack. Islamabad said six Pakistani locations were hit but claimed none were militant camps. A Pakistani military spokeswoman reported that at least 26 civilians were killed and 46 injured.
According to an Indian defense source who spoke to Reuters, Indian forces attacked the headquarters of Islamist extremist organisations including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
“India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” said a statement by the Indian defence ministry.
India has not verified Pakistan’s claims that Indian missiles struck three locations and that five Indian planes were shot down, according to a military spokesperson.
But according to four Indian Kashmiri local government sources, three fighter jets crashed overnight in different parts of the Himalayan region. All three pilots were taken to the hospital, the sources said. The report could not be immediately confirmed sources. However, Indian Defense Ministry officials were not available immediately to verify the report.
The attack was referred to as a “blatant act of war” by Islamabad, which also stated that it had informed the U.N. Security Council that Pakistan retained the right to react suitably to Indian aggression.
“All of these engagements have been done as a defensive measure. Pakistan remains a very responsible state. However, we will take all the steps necessary for defending the honour, integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan, at all cost,” Pakistan military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said.
According to police and witnesses, the South Asian neighbours also engaged in heavy gunfire and severe shelling across a large portion of their de facto border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
India and Pakistan have fought two of the three wars since independence in 1947 over Jammu & Kashmir. Targeted attacks between the neighbours are uncommon since a 2003 ceasefire, to which both nations recommitted in 2021. This is especially true of Indian strikes on Pakistani territory outside of Pakistan Occupied J&K.
However, experts noted that because of the intensity of India’s attack, which New Delhi dubbed “Operation Sindoor” there is a greater chance of escalation than there has been recently. Vermilion, a red powder that Hindu women apply to their foreheads as a symbol of marriage, is called ‘sindoor’ in Hindi. The Indian government organised a media conference to give details of the operation.
US President Donald Trump describing the fighting between India and Pakistan a “shame” and hoped “it ends quickly.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to both countries’ national security advisers, advising “both to keep lines of communication open and avoid escalation.”
A spokesperson said that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged both nations to exercise the utmost military prudence. China has also called both its neighbours to exercise restraint.