Dozens killed as India and Pakistan clash in worst violence in decades
India's retaliation for deadly Kashmir assault sparks fierce military exchange with Pakistan, killing civilians on both sides.
Indian soldiers sit inside a vehicle in Wuyan near Indian-administered Kashmir's main city of Srinagar after a loud explosion was heard on May 7, 2025. The death toll from Indian strikes on Pakistan has increased to eight, the country's military spokesman said on May 7, as India fired missiles at Pakistani territory and Islamabad vowed to 'settle the score'. (Photo by TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP)
India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier on Wednesday after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival, in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours in two decades.
At least 38 deaths were reported, with Islamabad saying 26 civilians were killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, and New Delhi adding at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling.
The fighting came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir.
The South Asian neighbours have fought multiple wars over the divided territory since they were carved out of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.
The latest violence exceeds India's strikes in 2019, when New Delhi said it had hit 'several militants' after a suicide bomber attacked an Indian security force convoy, killing 40.
The Indian army said 'justice is served', reporting nine 'terrorist camps' had been destroyed, with New Delhi adding that its actions 'have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature'.
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Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to 'shore up' his domestic popularity, adding that Islamabad 'won't take long to settle the score'.
Military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said five Indian jets had been downed across the border.
An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, said three of its fighter jets had crashed on home territory.
Pakistan said a hydropower plant in Kashmir was also targeted by India, damaging a dam structure, after India threatened to stop the flow of water on its side of the border.
Pakistan had earlier warned that tampering with the rivers that flow into its territory would be an 'act of war'.
Calls for calm
World leaders have issued urgent calls for de-escalation, while Pakistan's National Security Committee, which convened an emergency meeting led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, called on the international community to hold India 'accountable'.
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In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, troops cordoned off streets around a mosque Islamabad said was struck, with blast marks visible on the walls of several nearby homes.
The 70-year caretaker of the mosque was killed, and buried later Wednesday at a funeral attended by around 600 people, an AFP journalist saw.
'There were terrible sounds during the night, there was panic among everyone,' said Muhammad Salman, who lives close to the mosque.
'We are moving to a safer place… we are homeless now,' added 24-year-old Tariq Mir who was hit in the leg by shrapnel.
United Nations military observers arrived on Wednesday afternoon to inspect the site, which was blown out on one side.
Residents had begun collecting damaged copies of the Koran among concrete, wood, and iron debris scattered across the grounds.
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Pakistan said 21 civilians were killed in the strikes — including four children — while five were killed by gunfire at the border.
At least 12 people were killed and 29 others wounded in Poonch in Indian-administered Kashmir, local official Azhar Majid told AFP.
'We woke up as we heard the sound of firing', Farooq, a man in the Indian town of Poonch, told the Press Trust of India news agency from his hospital bed, his head wrapped in bandage.
'I saw shelling raining down.'
India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir by gunmen it said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
The assault in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam killed 26 people, mainly Hindu men.
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New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.
Pakistan rejects the accusations and called for an independent probe, and on Wednesday Prime Minister Sharif labelled India's strikes a 'heinous act of aggression' that would 'not go unpunished'.
The two sides have exchanged gunfire nightly since April 24 along the LoC, according to the Indian army. Pakistan also said it has conducted two missile tests.
'Maximum restraint'
'Escalation between India and Pakistan has already reached a larger scale than during the last major crisis in 2019, with potentially dire consequences', International Crisis Group analyst Praveen Donthi said.
Diplomats have piled pressure on leaders to step back.
'The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,' the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.
ALSO READ: Indian rapist murderer of doctor sentenced to life in prison
US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he hoped that the fighting 'ends very quickly'.
Concern poured in, including from China — a mutual neighbour of both nations — as well as from Britain, France and Russia, Germany and Turkey, while airlines have cancelled, diverted or rerouted flights.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after a visit to Islamabad, as Tehran seeks to mediate.
Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
India regularly blames its neighbour for backing armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.
– By: © Agence France-Presse
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Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Consequently, as South Africa commemorates 'Youth Month under the theme Skilling and Empowering Youth for the Future' we are compelled to sound the alarm on an existential crisis facing South Africa's young people. 4.9 million South African youth aged 15-34 are currently unemployed according to The Quarterly Labour Force Survey. 58% of unemployed graduates are under 35 according to StatsSA. Over 45% of existing jobs face high risk of AI displacement. A 2024 report by Investec also reveals a critical disconnect between industry and curricula stating that; while South African private sector firms scramble to compete in the AI race, with a majority reporting severe shortages of AI and data science skills, our education system produces fewer qualified graduates annually to meet this demand. Basic and higher education institutions remain dangerously misaligned with industry needs, forcing companies to either import foreign talent or lose ground technologically. Surely, without urgent curriculum reforms, expanded technical training, credible and competent deployees at our SETA's and public-private partnerships to bridge the AI skills revolution, South Africa faces a crisis of monumental structural unemployment. Systemic failures in education, skills development, and economic policy would leave millions permanently excluded from meaningful participation in the modern workforce. Especially young people who are already unemployed and unemployable. The latest reports from Goldman Sachs predict that: 'AI could displace 300 million jobs globally by 2030, while McKinsey warns that 375 million workers worldwide will need to switch careers entirely due to automation.' These staggering figures take on terrifying significance, as Paul Colmer, starkly warned in his recent TechCentral article (2 June 2025): 'The question isn't whether AI will transform our world, it's whether we will build the infrastructure and social frameworks necessary to navigate this transformation successfully.' Facing similar challenges of youth unemployment and inequality, India has engineered one of the most remarkable transformations in modern education history. As we submit this report to your committee, there is currently a Global Scramble for Indian AI Talent. Microsoft has just announced its plans to invest over $3 billion in India as it affirms it's interest to acquire Indian Tech and talent. The critical importance of India's AI strategy becomes evident when examining how global tech giants are competing for Indian engineering talent. A January 2025 investigation by 'The Ken', a respected Asian tech business analysis publication, titled 'Microsoft targets Nvidia's AI-chip empire with an army of Indian engineers', revealed how Microsoft is recruiting entire teams of Indian AI engineers from companies like Nvidia to build competitive AI chip architectures. This mirrors similar talent raids by Google, Amazon, and Meta, who have collectively hired over 15 000 Indian AI specialists in the past three years alone. For perspective, Nvidia stands as the preeminent global supplier of advanced processing units specifically engineered for artificial intelligence applications across industries. At the same time, the Top 500 Fin/tech Fortune companies are spearheaded by Indians. This global demand underscores a painful paradox for South Africa: our own tech sector remains critically dependent on Indian expertise, while the country is failing to develop homegrown talent. The Indian government has, however, moved decisively to counter its own brain drain. Through initiatives like the $1 billion IndiaAI Mission and tax incentives for returning diaspora experts, India is transforming from being the world's tech back office to becoming a self-sufficient AI innovator. Where Indian engineers once powered America's Silicon Valley's growth, they now develop cutting-edge AI solutions for India's economy in India. Under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, the country is projected to produce over 1 million AI professionals by 2026 through: Complete overhaul of technical education at the Indian Institutes of Technology According to a report by Gartner, the year 2025 will see 2 million new jobs generated by AI and Machine learning in India A joint study conducted by Microsoft and the Internet and Mobile Association of India revealed that India's AI market is expected to witness a growth of 20% over the next five years, the second fastest rate globally behind only China. The 'FutureSkills Prime' platform to reskill over 50% of the Indian professional workforce annually. Startup incubators focused on healthcare, agriculture and climate tech 40% of seats reserved for rural students in top programs, including an affirmative action reservation policy that proactively reserves seats for disadvantaged castes to study technology and related studies The National AI Marketplace which is a Government-funded platform connecting 50,000 AI startups with industry. And projected to add over $500 billion to GDP by 2030 The Semiconductor Mission with $10 billion investment to make India self-reliant in chip design • A 2024 report by American software company, ServiceNow, predicts that India would have created close to 3 million new tech jobs by 2028. While India surges ahead despite its challenges, we face painful contradictions as articulated by various experts and academics: Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA) is embroiled in SIU investigations, with the current and former board chairs embroiled in various scandals, while seemingly those deployed to lead this SETA are not appropriately qualified to lead South Africa's AI Race. Our universities produce fewer AI and tech graduates annually than industry demand. A 2024 information and communication technology (ICT) skills survey reveals a shortfall of around 77 000 high-value digital jobs in South Africa, with an additional 300 000 technology positions being outsourced abroad. Despite having 24 public higher education institutions, South Africa's education system is struggling to keep up with the demands of an expanding technology ecosystem. African Business Quarterly, Tania Griffin 2024. 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This Youth Month, we therefore implore the committee to: Declare AI/tech Education Emergency Convene a National Indaba on AI Readiness to assess our education system's capacity for 4IR and jobs of the future, and audit government support for tech research and R&D Declare 2026 as the year of Youth Skilling and partner with BRICS Plus countries like India, China and Saudi Arabia, including countries in the Global North and Advanced Asia Collaborate with Unions to ensure their members are reskilled to mitigate against a job blood bath. Honourable chair, India, with its own challenges similar to ours, proves that sustainable transformation is possible if there is Political will. Their youth unemployment rate has dropped 12 percentage points since launching these AI reforms across the board. As we celebrate Youth Month, we must remember the words of Isithwalandwe /Seaparankwe Oliver Tambo, who opined there follows: 'The children of any nation are its future. A country, a movement, a person that does not value its youth and children does not deserve its future.' We encourage the committee to remember these profound words by OR Tambo this Youth Month. Yours in urgent solidarity, Phapano Phasha, Executive Director, Centre for Alternative Political and Economic Thought. * The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Indepedent, IOL, or Independent Media.
