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New York Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: India-Pakistan Conflict Intensifies Into Most Expansive in Decades
A soldier examines a building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, on Wednesday. The risk of all-out war between India and Pakistan rose on Thursday, despite diplomatic attempts to de-escalate the conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries. On Wednesday, India said it carried out strikes on Pakistan in retaliation for a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Kashmir last month. Pakistan said its forces shot down Indian aircraft. Overnight into Thursday, heavy shelling and strikes were reported on each side of the border. The two nations have fought numerous wars, with the disputed area of Kashmir as a prime flashpoint, since 1947, when Britain divided India, its former colony, into India and Pakistan. Here is what to know about attempts to resolve the conflict, Wednesday's strikes, the attack in Kashmir, and the longstanding tensions between India and Pakistan. What's the latest in the fighting? The Indian government said on Thursday that it had thwarted Pakistani attempts to unleash drones and missiles at Indian military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, many of them home to air force bases. India said it had responded by striking Pakistan's air defense systems and radars close to the city of Lahore — the kind of blow that often causes a military conflict to intensify, analysts said. Pakistan accused India of continuing what it called illegal aggression and said its forces had shot down more than two dozen Indian drones that entered Pakistan's airspace. In the rapidly developing situation, the claims from both sides could not be independently verified. On Wednesday, the Indian government said its forces had struck nine sites in Pakistan and on Pakistan's side of the disputed Kashmir region. Video After Indian forces struck Pakistan and its side of the disputed Kashmir region, Pakistani military officials said they had begun a forceful response. Credit Credit... M.D. Mughal/Associated Press Pakistani military officials said that more than 20 people had been killed and dozens injured after six places were hit on the Pakistani side of Kashmir and in Punjab Province. Residents of the Indian side of Kashmir said at least 10 people had been killed in shelling from the Pakistani side since India carried out its strikes. A spokesman for the Pakistani Army said that five other places had also come under attack, leaving at least eight people dead and 35 wounded. Reported strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir China Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined line of control Muzaffarabad Controlled by India Pahalgam Militant attack on April 22 Bagh Islamabad Kotli Strikes by India on May 7 India Shakargarh Muridke Disputed area Pakistan PAK. INDIA Bahawalpur China Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined line of control Muzaffarabad Controlled by India Bagh Islamabad Pahalgam Militant attack on April 22 Kotli Strikes by India on May 7 India Shakargarh Muridke Disputed area Pakistan PAK. INDIA Bahawalpur China Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined line of control Muzaffarabad Bagh Islamabad Pahalgam Militant attack on April 22 Controlled by India Kotli Strikes by India on May 7 India Shakargarh Disputed area Muridke Pakistan PAK. INDIA Bahawalpur The targeted locations included Bahawalpur, in Punjab Province, Pakistan, the site of a religious seminary associated with Jaish-e-Mohammad, another Pakistan-based militant group; Kotli and Bagh in Pakistan-administered Kashmir; and Shakargarh and Muridke in Punjab. Lashkar-e-Taiba is believed to have a presence in Muridke. The Pakistani military said that Indian planes did not enter Pakistan's airspace while conducting the attacks. What are the efforts to stop the fighting? Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with leaders from both countries on Thursday and emphasized the need for 'immediate de-escalation,' according to State Department accounts of the calls. There were a flurry of diplomatic meetings in New Delhi and Islamabad on Thursday. Top diplomats from Iran and Saudi Arabia, crucial regional players who have close ties to both of the warring countries, were in New Delhi for meetings. The diplomatic push was centered around the hope that the heaviest military engagement could be contained to the actions on early Wednesday. Both sides could plausibly claim victory, as India struck deeper into Pakistan than it had at any point in recent decades, and Pakistan downed several Indian planes. Diplomats and analysts expressed some hope that the day's events might offer the two sides an offramp. The question now is whether Pakistan will decide that it must answer India's strikes in Punjab, the Pakistani heartland, with an attack of its own on Indian soil. What happened in the Kashmir attack? On April 22, 26 people in the Baisaran Valley in Kashmir were killed by militants who approached and shot them. Another 17 were injured. Except for one local Kashmiri man, a government tally of the dead showed that all were Hindu tourists. Accounts from the injured and survivors suggested many were targeted after they were asked about their religion. The attack, which occurred near Pahalgam, a town in the southern part of Indian-administered Kashmir, was one of the worst on Indian civilians in decades. A group calling itself the Resistance Front emerged on social media to take responsibility. Indian officials privately say the group is a proxy for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organization based in Pakistan. In Kashmir, Indian security forces have begun a sweeping clampdown, arresting thousands of people. What is Operation Sindoor? India picked the name 'Operation Sindoor' for its military action. Sindoor, or vermilion powder, is a traditional marker of the marital status of Hindu women. Married women wear it either in the parting of their hair or on their foreheads, and they wipe it off if they become widowed. During the April 22 terrorist attack, many women lost their husbands, who were targeted because they were Hindu. The Indian government's choice of the name Operation Sindoor signaled its intention to avenge the widowed women. 'Operation Sindoor' also signals to right-wing Hindu groups — many of which favor more traditionally defined gender roles — that the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is listening to their demands for vengeance. But some feminists have criticized the use of the word sindoor. Hindu nationalism is predominantly driven by a male view of the world, said V. Geetha, a feminist historian who writes about gender, caste and class. 'Women figure in it as objects to be protected or as mother figures goading their men to prove their heroism,' Ms. Geetha said. What are the origins of the dispute? The roots of the Kashmir conflict trace back to the 1947 partition of British India, which led to the creation of a predominantly Hindu India and a predominantly Muslim Pakistan. In October of that year, the Hindu monarch of the Muslim-majority princely state of Kashmir acceded to India, but Pakistan laid claim to the territory and sought to take it by military force. A U.N.-brokered agreement in 1949 established a cease-fire line, dividing Kashmir. After wars in 1965 and 1971, the cease-fire line became the Line of Control, with India possessing about two-thirds of Kashmir and Pakistan the rest. But the dispute remains unresolved. Here is a timeline of the decades of tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Has Pakistan supported militancy in Kashmir? An insurgency in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir began in the 1980s, primarily driven by local grievances, with Pakistan eventually supporting some groups, experts say. Among the Kashmir-focused insurgent groups that emerged, some supported independence for the region, while others wanted the Indian side of Kashmir to be taken over by Pakistan. In the 1990s, Pakistan provided training and other support to several militant groups operating in Kashmir and within Pakistan. This involvement was later acknowledged by several senior Pakistani officials, including the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. The spike in insurgency in the 1990s forced an exodus of Kashmir's minority Hindus, a large number of them leaving for New Delhi and other cities after facing targeted attacks. The insurgency began to ease around 2002, as Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, another major militant group, although Lashkar-e-Taiba continued to operate under aliases. A cease-fire was declared and a peace process with India was initiated, a shift that some observers linked to pressure by the United States after its post-9/11 intervention in Afghanistan. The peace process collapsed after attacks in Mumbai, India, in 2008, which killed 166 people and were attributed to Lashkar-e-Taiba. What is Kashmir's status now? Since war last broke out in 1999, Kashmir has remained one of the most militarized places in the world. India and Pakistan have come to the brink of war several times, including in 2019, when a suicide bombing in Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian soldiers. In 2019, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked a part of the Indian constitution that had given semi-autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The move, to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir, as India's portion of the region is known, was part of his Hindu nationalist agenda. Pakistan condemned India's moves. But violent unrest has broken out in the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan, too. Protests there have reflected a general feeling of dissatisfaction with Pakistani rule. Direct rule by India dampened the outbreaks of violence in the portion of Kashmir it controlled. Voting also resumed last year. But discontent with Mr. Modi's party, particularly for how heavily it polices the lives of Kashmiris, remains.
National Post
08-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
India and Pakistan trade fire and accusations after missile attack
Article content Article content In Lahore, local police official Mohammad Rizwan said a drone was downed near Walton Airport, an airfield in a residential area about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the border with India that also contains military installations. Article content India's Defense Ministry said its armed forces 'targeted air defense radars and systems' in several places in Pakistan, including Lahore. Article content India, meanwhile, accused Pakistan of attempting 'to engage a number of military targets' with missiles and drones along the Line of Control that divides Kashmir and elsewhere along their border. Article content 'The debris of these attacks in now being recovered from a number of locations,' it said. Article content Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told parliament that so far Pakistan has not responded to India's missiles attacks, but there will be a response at an appropriate time. Article content Article content Article content The two sides have exchanged heavy fire over the past day. Article content Tarar, the Pakistani information minister, said that the country's armed forces have killed 40 to 50 Indian soldiers in the exchanges along the Line of Control. Article content India has not commented on that claim. Earlier, the army said one Indian soldier was killed by shelling Wednesday. Article content Tarar denied Indian accusations that Pakistan had fired missiles toward the Indian city of Amritsar, saying in fact an Indian drone fell in the city. Neither claim could be confirmed. Article content Article content India's Foreign Ministry has said that 16 civilians were killed Wednesday during exchanges of fire across the de facto border. Article content Pakistani officials said six people have been killed near highly militarized frontier in exchanges of fire over the past day. Article content Flights remained suspended at over two dozen airports across northern and western regions in India, according to travel advisories by multiple airlines. Pakistan has suspended flights at four of its airports — Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Sialkot _ according to the Civil Aviation Authority. Article content
The Independent
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are on brink of war – what happens now?
As the rest of the world urges calm, India and Pakistan are once again teetering on the edge of full-blown conflict amid their most serious military escalation in decades. India said its air force struck nine sites inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in a pre-dawn raid early on Wednesday, claiming its 'Operation Sindoor' targeted terrorist camps and infrastructure. Pakistan says at least 31 people, including women and children, were killed, despite Indian officials insisting there were no civilian casualties. Pakistan shot down several Indian aircraft during the strikes, at least three of which came down on the Indian side of the de facto border. The question now is whether that – as well as heavy shelling in Kashmir that Indian police say has killed at least 13 civilians – will be deemed enough of a response. Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said Wednesday morning that Islamabad has every right to respond to the 'act of war' and the entire nation stands with the Pakistani forces, whose morale and spirits are high. 'Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,' Mr Sharif said. Analysts say the question is not whether Pakistan will retaliate to the Indian strikes, but how powerful the response will be. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of decades of hostilities between India and Pakistan which both claim the Muslim majority region in whole but control it only in part. The two countries have fought two of their three full-scale wars since independence over the region. New Delhi has long accused its neighbour of harbouring and backing groups waging an active militant insurgency in the Indian-administered side of Kashmir. It says it has evidence Pakistan was involved in the 22 April terror attack on Pahalgam in Kashmir where 26 people were killed, most of them tourists. Islamabad has rejected the allegations and called for an independent investigation. 'Pakistan has a history of swift counterattacks – it's something we're taught in army training as well. So, a retaliation is not a question of 'if' but 'when'. Pakistan will have to respond to satisfy its domestic audience. Not doing so would invite criticism for both the Shehbaz Sharif government and the Pakistan Army,' retired Lt Col JS Sodhi told The Independent. 'Pakistan will avoid targeting any major military installation in India, as that would be seen as an act of war. Instead, we can expect them to strike civilian infrastructure or bombing at border areas which could cause civilian casualties, a move intended to send a message without provoking full-scale war.' The army veteran said Pakistan is likely to limit its retaliation to a less lethal blow to avoid escalation, noting that China – a vital ally to Islamabad – has already urged calm and has a vested interest in keeping tensions between India and Pakistan under control. Responding to the Indian strikes, the Chinese foreign ministry said the Xi Jinping government finds "India's military operation early this morning regrettable'. 'China opposes all forms of terrorism. We urge both sides to act in the larger interest of peace and stability, remain calm, exercise restraint and refrain from taking actions that may further complicate the situation," a spokesperson added. Lt Col Sodhi said China's influence over Pakistan would be a key factor in deescalation, arguing that Beijing has no interest in a major conflict on its western flank while it pursues its own interests to the east. 'China would not allow Pakistan to escalate it into a full-fledged war as its number one target is Taiwan,' he said. India has previously used targeted airstrikes across the Line of Control (LoC) as retaliation for major militant attacks – notably in 2016 and 2019 – which makes the recent strikes part of an emerging pattern in India's military doctrine. The last military escalation saw a brief but fierce dogfight between a Pakistan Air Force pilot and an Indian Air Force pilot which ended with Pakistan capturing Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman after his fighter jet was shot down. The pilot was eventually returned to India, helping to bring tensions back under control. But the stakes now appear higher, as well as the danger of a pattern of escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman warned that the current tit-for-tat dynamic is 'higher up the escalatory ladder' than in past confrontations. Mr Kugelman, an American foreign policy author and expert specialising in South Asia, said Wednesday morning's strike was one of the most intense in years, and that Pakistan's response would 'surely pack a punch as well'. 'These are two strong militaries that, even with nuclear weapons as a deterrent, are not afraid to deploy sizeable levels of conventional military force against each other,' Mr Kugelman told the Associated Press. 'The escalation risks are real. And they could well increase, and quickly.' While Wednesday's events mirror those of 2019 in many ways, there are concerns that both sides could be willing to push their conventional military activity further this time around. 'Decision makers in both states now have a higher risk appetite for conflict initiation and escalation than prior to 2019,' said Frank O'Donnell, a non-resident fellow at the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center, a think-tank in Washington, as they had managed then to clash without nuclear weapons being used. 'But without a clear mutual sense of the precise actions, that could trigger inadvertent escalation,' he added. 'Each side will think they are in a better position than last time,' said Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia security researcher based at the University of Technology, Sydney. 'It is only when we see actual combat that we will find out.'
Al Jazeera
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
What we know about new India-Pakistan military confrontation
NewsFeed What we know about new India-Pakistan military confrontation Indian and Pakistani forces have been attacking across the contested frontier between Indian- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, after India launched overnight strikes into Pakistan. Several people have been reported killed. Here's what we know so far.
Al Jazeera
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
India-Pakistan: Can other countries pull them from the brink of conflict?
Other nations call for restraint while offering mediation as the nuclear-armed neighbours face renewed conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir. India has carried out strikes on what it has described as 'terrorist infrastructure' in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in response to last month's deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, further raising tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Pakistan said on Wednesday that at least 26 people were killed and 46 others injured in the Indian attacks. In retaliatory attacks by Pakistani forces, at least 10 people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir. Islamabad said civilians were targeted in India's strikes, while India's defence ministry said its forces only hit bases from where attacks on India are 'planned and directed'. India has blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, that killed 26 people. Islamabad has denied it played any role and called for a 'neutral' investigation into the worst attack on tourists in Kashmir in a quarter century – a call rejected by India. India claims Pakistan has provided a haven for armed groups, which have carried out deadly attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack. More than 200 people, including security forces, were killed in the two attacks combined. Advertisement Amid soaring tensions, international leaders have called for restraint after New Delhi's biggest attack on Pakistan and territory it controls in decades. Islamabad has long welcomed mediation or international involvement to resolve the decades-old conflict over Kashmir, which lies at the heart of their broader dispute, but New Delhi has tried to avoid internationalisation of the conflict. Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir, but each controls a part of it — with China also administering a chunk of northern Kashmir. Here is what you need to know about the international efforts to calm tensions between the nuclear-armed nations. What have countries said so far about the escalation? While reactions from the international community continue to trickle in, there is an overwhelming consensus that both countries should exercise maximum restraint. United States: Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with the national security advisers of India and Pakistan on Wednesday, urging the two sides to 'keep lines of communication open and avoid escalation', the US State Department said. Rubio said he would continue to stay engaged with both sides, was monitoring the situation between the neighbours closely and hoping for a 'peaceful resolution'. Sign up for Al Jazeera Breaking News Alert Get real-time breaking news alerts and stay up-to-date with the most important headlines from around the globe. Subscribe Your subscription failed. Please try again. Please check your email to confirm your subscription By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy protected by reCAPTCHA United Kingdom: The UK too has offered to play a diplomatic role in the India-Pakistan conflict. 'We stand ready to support both countries,' UK Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told BBC Radio. 'Both have a huge interest in regional stability, in dialogue, in de-escalation and anything we can do to support that, we are here and willing to do.' The conflict dates back to the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent by British colonial rulers into India and Pakistan. Advertisement China: Beijing called India's attack 'regrettable' while urging both sides to exercise restraint. 'They're both China's neighbours as well. China opposes all forms of terrorism,' the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement. France: Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that while India's desire to 'protect itself from the scourge of terrorism' was understandable, it called on both countries to avoid escalation and protect civilians. United Nations: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the international community could not 'afford a military confrontation' between the nuclear-armed nations. Who has offered to mediate? Prior to India's much-anticipated attack, a number of countries said they would be willing to get involved to help de-escalate the continuing crisis. China: After Pakistan suggested that China could play a role in an international probe to investigate the Pahalgam attack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun welcomed 'fair and just investigations at an early date'. He urged 'dialogue and consultation to … uphold regional peace and stability'. Russia: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar that Moscow was ready to 'act for a political settlement of the situation', in the case there was a mutual willingness 'on the part of Islamabad and New Delhi', his ministry said in a statement. Lavrov spoke to Dar on May 4, two days after speaking to Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. Malaysia: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in a post on X expressed support for Pakistan's call for an 'independent and transparent investigation' into the Pahalgam attack. 'Malaysia remains open to playing a constructive role, should the need arise,' he added, suggesting a willingness to mediate if acceptable to New Delhi and Islamabad. Advertisement Iran: Tehran was willing to 'use its good offices in Islamabad and New Delhi to forge greater understanding at this difficult time', Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X, four days after the Pahalgam attack. What positions do Pakistan and India hold on mediation over Kashmir? India has stationed more than half a million forces in the part of Kashmir it administers, to quash decades-old armed rebellion. Ties between the neighbours have been practically frozen since India's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government stripped Kashmir of its special status in 2019. The two countries have fought three out of four wars over the Himalayan region. They briefly stood on the brink of war in the wake of a deadly attack in 2019 on Indian soldiers in Indian-administered Kashmir. India's longstanding position on Kashmir is that the issue remains a bilateral one between New Delhi and Islamabad, and it has historically rejected any third party from mediating in the conflict. India cites the Simla Agreement, a 1972 pact between the nations that spoke of the bilateral resolution of disputes, to buttress its position. Senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, Praveen Donthi, believes India's 'suspicion' of foreign involvement in the Kashmir conflict is derived from the view that international invention would amount to 'levelling the field'. 'India considers its claims to be stronger,' Donthi told Al Jazeera. India, he added, sees itself as a regional power and would like to 'use its heft to negotiate with Pakistan bilaterally'. Advertisement In 1948, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 47 mandating the holding of a plebiscite in the territory, giving residents a choice between joining India or Pakistan. On the other hand, Pakistan has been open to third-party mediation from individual countries and global organisations like the UN. Pakistan has regularly brought up the Kashmir issue at different UN forums, calling on the organisation to help solve the conflict. The UN human rights council and international rights organisations have accused India of rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir. Rabia Akhtar, director at the Centre for Security, Strategy and Policy Research at the University of Lahore, said Pakistan seeks third-party mediation over the Kashmir conflict because it sees it as 'a matter of international concern given deep humanitarian, legal and political dimensions of the conflict'. 'With limited leverage in direct bilateral engagement since India continues to shun it, Islamabad sees international mediation as the only way to level the diplomatic playing field and keep the issue alive globally,' she told Al Jazeera. Has a third party previously mediated between Pakistan and India? While India has consistently opposed third-party mediation over the Kashmir conflict, external involvement has played a key role in helping pause previous wars and military standoffs between the two neighbours. The second war between India and Pakistan in 1965 ended with the two nations signing the Tashkent Declaration in January 1966, after it was brokered by the Soviet Union. Advertisement The accord saw the Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani President Mohammad Ayub Khan agree to a mutual withdrawal to pre-war positions and the restoration of diplomatic and economic ties. In 1999, during the Kargil War, Pakistani-backed rebels and soldiers crossed the Line of Control (LoC) – the de facto border dividing Kashmir between Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered parts – and took over positions on the Indian side. However, former US President Bill Clinton successfully pressured then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to withdraw Pakistani forces, using the threat of international isolation. The 10-week fighting over the snowy heights of Kargil led to the deaths of nearly 1,000 soldiers and fighters on both sides. Akhtar said that historically, third-party mediation has played a critical role in de-escalating India-Pakistan tensions. 'Both countries lack bilateral crisis mechanisms and have outsourced escalation control to third parties,' she said. 'Traditionally, these backchannels have been run by the US, China, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.' While she noted that such efforts had failed to resolve the Kashmir issue, 'they have helped both sides save face and step back from the brink'. 'In the current crisis, discreet backchannel facilitation, not formal mediation, may be the most viable option,' she added. Donthi from the International Crisis Group said mediation will be difficult as 'both sides show a greater appetite for risk, driven by domestic pressures', adding that they are 'already at a higher point on the escalatory ladder'. Advertisement 'It will need coordinated and sustained international pressure from all the friendly nations and major powers.'
