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LeMonde
23-05-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Nuclear threat looms over conflict between India and Pakistan
The confrontation between India and Pakistan, which ended on Saturday, May 10, with a ceasefire, revived fears of a nuclear war between these two hostile neighbors, both of whom have possessed nuclear weapons since 1998. Donald Trump, who announced the end of hostilities, boasted that he had stopped a nuclear war. This was not the first time that American officials raised such a scenario. Back in 1999, during the Kargil conflict in Ladakh, northern India, US intelligence had already warned of the possible use of nuclear weapons. The US president did not offer further details, but the question remains: Did one of the warring parties threaten to use nuclear weapons after only four days of intense conflict involving drones and missiles? Throughout the crisis, Pakistan's top military officers repeatedly stated that the nuclear option was not being considered. "Such a conflict would be absurd," said army spokesperson General Ahmed Chaudhry. "It would be inconceivable and sheer folly, because it would endanger 1.6 billion people." On May 10, however, as the conflict came dangerously close to turning into all-out war, with both neighbors penetrating deep into enemy territory to strike strategic military targets, alarming signals likely alerted foreign ministries around the world.
L'Orient-Le Jour
07-05-2025
- Politics
- L'Orient-Le Jour
At least 38 dead in escalation at India-Pakistan border
India and Pakistan exchanged artillery fire on Wednesday, killing at least 26 Pakistanis and eight Indians in the most serious military confrontation between the two countries in two decades. Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have simmered since gunmen killed 26 men in Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22. The two countries have been at odds since their partition in 1947. The conflict escalated from diplomacy to military action late Tuesday into Wednesday. Artillery fire was exchanged along the contested Kashmir border following Indian strikes on Pakistani territory in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack. During these strikes, "nine terrorist camps were destroyed," Indian Army spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Vyomika Singh told reporters. The Indian missiles struck six cities in Pakistani Kashmir and Punjab, and the subsequent exchanges of fire, killed at least 26 civilians and injured 46 others, stated Islamabad Army spokesman General Ahmed Chaudhry. These strikes also damaged the Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric dam, he added. Aircraft grounded India reported eight deaths and 29 injuries in the Indian administered Kashmiri village of Poonch during artillery fire. The overnight battle continued into the morning with the area targeted by Pakistani shells. 'We were awakened by gunfire, I saw shells falling, I was scared the roof would collapse,' Poonch resident Farooq told the Press Trust of India (PTI). Earlier in the night, violent explosions were reported around Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. By morning, an Indian security source told AFP that three Indian Air Force fighter jets had crashed for reasons not immediately known. The fate of the pilots was not disclosed. An AFP photographer witnessed aircraft debris in a field in Wuyan, near Srinagar. The downed plane was identified as a Mirage 2000 by an Indian security source. Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told AFP that Pakistan had shot down 'five enemy planes,' but gave no further details. The National Security Committee, which meets only in cases of extreme emergency, convened in Islamabad on Wednesday morning. India has accused Pakistan of involvement in the Pahalgam attack, which Pakistan has denied. 'A big bang' One of the sites targeted overnight by the Indian army is the Subhan Mosque in Bahawalpur, in Pakistani Punjab, linked according to Indian intelligence to groups close to the jihadist movement Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). India accuses this group, suspected of the attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai in 2008, of carrying out the April 22 attack. In Muridke, a city in Pakistan's Punjab province that was also targeted, resident Mohammed Khourram told AFP he heard 'a big boom, very strange.' "I was very scared, as if it was an earthquake. Then a missile came and struck, and a second one a minute later, three or four followed in the next three or four minutes," he continued. India's retaliations were welcomed with satisfaction in the streets of New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi "avenged the deaths [of April 22]," G.B. Rajakumar, a driver in the capital, told AFP. In contrast, about 200 Pakistanis marched early Wednesday in the southern city of Hyderabad, burning Indian flags and portraits of Modi. Overnight, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Indian and Pakistani counterparts, urging dialogue to 'defuse the situation,' according to the White House. 'The escalation has reached a level higher than that of the last crisis in 2019, with potentially terrible consequences,' warned analyst Praveen Donthi from the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank. Water war In 2019, New Delhi launched strikes following a deadly attack on an Indian military convoy in Kashmir. China has called on the two countries "to avoid taking actions that would further complicate the situation," while France urged them "to exercise restraint." The Indian army spokeswoman emphasized that the targeted sites were "chosen to avoid any damage to civilian infrastructure or civilian casualties." New Delhi is set to host Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who visited Islamabad on Monday as part of mediation efforts. On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intention to 'cut off the water' from rivers originating in India that flow into Pakistan — a threat experts say is not feasible in the short term. 'Water belonging to India was flowing outward. It will now be stopped to serve India's interests,' Modi said. The day after the attack, India suspended its participation in a water-sharing treaty signed in 1960 with its neighbor. On Tuesday, Pakistan accused India of altering the flow of the Chenab River, one of the three rivers under its control according to the so-called Indus treaty.
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First Post
07-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Pakistan hit and stunned but in denial mode, its army says 'no Indian aircraft came here'
Even as Pakistan claimed to have mounted a counter-offensive to Operation Sindoor, it claimed that no Indian aircraft entered its airspace and no Pakistani aircraft crossed into Indian airspace read more Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter jet F-16 performs to commemorate Pakistan Air Force's 'Operation Swift Retort', following the shot down of Indian military aircrafts on February 27, 2019 in Kashmir, during an air show in Karachi, Pakistan February 27, 2020. (Photo: Reuters) Pakistan has said that neither any Indian aircraft entered its airspace nor any Pakistani aircraft crossed into Indian airspace in last night's military action. India said it struck nine terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) in the early hours of Wednesday in response to the Pahalgam attack. The military action was codenamed 'Operation Sindoor'. India blamed Pakistan for the attack in which Pakistan-sponsored terrorists killed 26 people. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan has said that the country's air and ground forces were pressed into action to conduct retaliatory strikes against India. However, even as Pakistan acknowledged Indian strikes and claimed to have responded to India, it said that no planes crossed borders. 'At no time, any of their aircraft were allowed to enter into Pakistan's airspace and also at no time, none of Pakistan's aircraft went into Indian airspace,' said Lieutenant General Ahmed Chaudhry, the principal spokesperson of the Pakistani military. Chaudhry further told the media that Pakistan responded fully to the Indian operation and destroyed 'several' Indian checkposts and struck a brigade headquarters inside India. India said in an initial that it struck only terrorist sites and not any military installation. Later at a press conference, an Indian official said that targets struck were engaged in terrorist activities against India. 'Operation Sindoor was launched to give justice to victims of heinous Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22. Nine terrorist camps were targeted and completely destroyed. For three decades, terror infrastructure has prospered in Pakistan that includes recruitment and indoctrination centres, training areas, and launchpads. These centres are spread over both Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK),' said Colonel Sofiya Qureshi at the briefing. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
