India launches ‘Operation Sindoor', missiles hit several sites in Pakistan
India's military said it launched 'Operation Sindoor', striking nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, after which Islamabad said it had retaliated by striking Indian military targets, including downing several warplanes.
The Indian strike and counterattack by Pakistan come amid soaring tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours after a deadly attack last month on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad, which denied any involvement.
India's government said in a statement early on Wednesday that its military had attacked 'terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed'.
'Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,' it said.
Residents examine a building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir [MD Mughal/AP Photo]
Pakistani officials said at least eight people were killed and more than 35 others injured in India's attacks. The missiles struck locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the country's eastern Punjab province.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the cities of Muzaffarabad and Kotli, both in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, were among the targets of the Indian strikes.
'Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, speaking to a foreign TV network, confirmed that at least five Indian aircraft have been shot down and that a number of Indian soldiers have been taken prisoner,' Hyder said.
'Pakistan said that it would respond to any Indian attack against Pakistan, and Pakistan is now responding to that Indian attack,' he said.
'Heavy shelling has now resumed on the Line of Control that separates Pakistan-administered Kashmir from Indian-administered Kashmir,' he added.
A Pakistani military spokesman had earlier told the broadcaster Geo that at least five locations, including two mosques, had been hit. He had also said that Pakistan's response was under way, without providing details.
In Punjab, missiles hit a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur, killing a child and wounding two civilians, the military said.
Kashmir tensions escalate
Following India's attacks, the armies of the two sides exchanged intense shelling and heavy gunfire across their frontier in disputed Kashmir in at least three places, the Reuters news agency reported, citing police and witnesses.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum restraint from both sides.
'The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,' the spokesperson said.
'The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.'
United States President Donald Trump said the clashes were 'a shame'.
'I just hope it ends very quickly,' Trump said at the White House.
The eruption of violence comes amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in the aftermath of an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir last month.
India blamed Pakistan for the violence, in which 26 men were killed, and promised to respond. Pakistan denied that it had anything to do with the killings.
Nitasha Kaul, the director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, said the strikes are 'very concerning'.
'Once again, the worst affected are going to be the people in the region, the Kashmiris, who are caught between the competing and proprietorial and rival postures and attitudes of India and Pakistan,' Kaul told Al Jazeera.
Still, she said, the escalation is 'not that surprising, because within India… there has been a domestic pressure building up for a more militarist response, given the fact that there is a particularly hyper-nationalist government in power.
'In that sense, sadly, this was a countdown to a greater escalation, and hopefully it won't proceed much further beyond what has already happened with these strikes,' Kaul added.
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