India pulled missiles on Pakistan early Wednesday, in what it said was reprisals for the massacre of Indian tourists last month. Pakistan qualified war strikes and said it had shot down several Indian fighter planes.
The missiles have killed more than two dozen people, including women and children, to cashmere administered in Pakistan and the country’s Punjab province, the Pakistani army said. The strikes have targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned,” said the Department of Defense of India.
Pakistan said it reserved the right to respond, which raises the spectrum that the back and forth could turn into a total conflict between nuclear rivals. Already, it is their worst confrontation since 2019, when they have approached the war.
After strikes, there was a heavy fire exchange that the officials of each country said that more people died. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the armed forces for having shot down five Indian planes, which, according to him, were struck after pulling their missiles but they were still in Indian air space.
There was no immediate comment from India, but three planes fell into territory villages under the control of India, according to the police and the residents.
Tensions have climbed between the neighbors since an attack in April in which armed men killed 26 people, mainly Indian tourists, at cashmere controlled by India. Some survivors told Indian media that armed men in some cases had distinguished Hindu men and pulled them at close range.
India accuses Pakistan of being behind the attack, which was claimed by a militant group which pressed the resistance of the cashmere. India said the group was linked to Lashkar-E-Taiba, a dissolved Pakistani militant group that New Delhi has long been accused of being supported by Pakistan.
Islamabad denies his participation.
India and Pakistan fought two of their three wars in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between them and claimed by the two in its entirety.
Following the massacre, the rivals expelled diplomats and nationals of the other, closed their borders and closed an airspace. India has also suspended a critical water sharing treaty with Pakistan.
Climbing increases the risk of war
The Pakistani Prime Minister sentenced the air strikes and said his country would retaliate.
“Pakistan has the right to give a solid response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed given,” said Sharif.
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It was not clear if the affirmation of Pakistan that he had shot fighter planes constituted his reprisals or if others could arrive.
The country’s national security committee said Pakistan reserves the right to respond “in self -defense, both, instead of its choice”.
The press release indicates that strikes were carried out “on the false pretext for the presence of imaginary terrorist camps” and said they had killed civilians.
South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman said that strikes were among the highest intensities in India during his rival for years and that Pakistan’s response “would surely also make a punch.”
“These are two strong soldiers who, even with nuclear weapons as deterrent, are not afraid to deploy significant levels of conventional military force against each other,” said Kugelman. “The risks of climbing are real. And they could increase well, and quickly.”
In 2019, the two countries approached a war after a cashmere insurgency struck a car loaded with explosives on a bus carrying Indian soldiers, killing 40 years. India responded with air strikes.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a maximum restraint because the world could not “afford a military confrontation” between India and Pakistan, according to a statement by spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
China has also called for calm. Beijing is by far the largest investor in Pakistan and has multiple border conflicts with India, including one in the northeast part of the Kashmir region.
Several Indian states have held civil defense exercises on Wednesday to train civilians and security personnel to respond in the event of an attack. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has postponed his next trip to Norway, Croatia and the Netherlands.
Panic and destruction scenes
Missile strikes have reached six locations and killed at least 26 people, including women and children, said Pakistan military spokesperson, lieutenant-general Ahmed Sharif.
The officials said that 38 other people had been injured in strikes and that five other people were killed in Pakistan during the shots through the border later during the day.
In Muzaffarabad, the main city of cashmere controlled by Pakistan, resident Abdul Sammad said he had heard several explosions while explosions tore the houses. He saw people running and the authorities immediately cut the power of the region.
People have run in the streets or open areas. “We were afraid that the next missile could hit our house,” said Mohammad Ashraf, another resident.
Indian aircraft damaged infrastructure in a cashmere dam administered by Pakistan, according to Sharif, the military spokesperson, calling it a violation of international standards.
Strikes have also reached nearly two sites previously linked to militant groups that have since been prohibited, according to Pakistan.
One hit the Subhan mosque in the city of Bahawalpur du Punjab, killing 13 people, according to Zohaib Ahmed, a doctor in a neighboring hospital.
The mosque is near a seminar which was once the central office of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group prohibited in 2002. Managers say that the group has had no operational presence on the site since the prohibition.
Another missile hit a mosque in Muridke in Punjab, damaging. A sprawling building located nearby served as a registered office of Lashkar-E-Taiba until 2013, when Pakistan prohibited the militant group and arrested its founder.
The Ministry of Defense of India described strikes as “focused, measured and unchecked nature”.
“No military installation in Pakistan has been targeted,” the statement said.
Indian politicians from different political parties praised the operation, which was named “Sindoor”, a Hindi word for vermillion powder carried by Hindu women married on the forehead and hair. It was a reference to the women whose husbands were killed in front of them during the Kashmir attack.
Fire and planes exchanges are incumbent on the villages of the territory under control in India
Along the control line, which divides the disputed region of cashmere between India and Pakistan, there have been heavy exchanges of shooting.
Indian police and doctors said 12 civilians had been killed and at least 40 injured by Pakistani bombing in the Poonch district near the de facto very militarized border. At least 10 civilians were also injured in the Cashmere Uri sector, police announced.
Shortly after the strikes of India, the planes fell into three villages: two in cashmere controlled by India, a third in the state of Punjab in India.
The debris of an airplane was dispersed in a village, including in a school and a mosque complex, according to the police and the residents. The firefighters fought for hours to turn off the resulting flames.
“There was a huge fire in the sky. Then we also heard several explosions,” said Mohammed Yousuf Dar, a resident of the village of Wuyan in cashmere controlled by India.
Another plane fell into an open field in the village of Bhardha Kalan. Resident Sachin Kumar told the Associated Press that he had heard massive explosions and saw a huge fireball.
Kumar said he and several others rushed to the scene, where they saw Indian soldiers take away the pilots.
A third plane crashed into a farm in Punjab, said a police officer at the AP, speaking under the guise of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
–Saaliq and Roy reported New Delhi, and Hussain reported to Srinagar, India. Writers of the associate press Ishfaq Hussian in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan; Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pakistan; Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan; And Huizhong Wu in Bangkok contributed to this story.
