India launched military strikes on targets in Pakistan, both countries said on Wednesday, with Pakistan claiming it had shot down five Indian Air Force jets in response, in a dangerous escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals.
India’s missile strikes early Wednesday morning targeted “terrorist infrastructure” across nine sites deep in Pakistan’s densely populated Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, it said. They come more than two weeks after a massacre of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on its neighbor.
Pakistan said eight people were killed in Wednesday’s strikes – including women and a three-year-old girl – and 35 wounded after six locations were targeted, in what the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described as “an act of war.” The escalation puts India and Pakistan, two neighbors with a long history of conflict, in dangerous territory, with Islamabad vowing to retaliate against New Delhi’s strikes and the risk of tit-for-tat responses spiraling into an all-out war.
Indian jets have previously bombed Pakistani territory during bouts of rising tensions but Wednesday’s operation is the deepest India has struck inside its neighbor since the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, the biggest of several wars between the two countries.
The situation is now “obviously serious and fluid,” said Fahd Humayun, an assistant professor of political science at Tufts University. “Retaliation to India’s actions will likely now be inevitable.” The Indian Army, which dubbed its military action Operation Sindoor, declared “Justice is served,” on X. “Jai Hind!” it added, meaning “Victory to India.”
But world leaders have expressed concern over the operation and have urged restraint from both countries, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning that “the world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.” The US Department of State said it was “closely monitoring” the flare-up.
Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India have inched closer to open conflict since the massacre last month, with India’s Hindu-nationalist government under intense pressure from its base to respond to the attack, in which gunmen killed 25 Indian tourists in a popular holiday spot.
Pakistan says it shot down five Indian Air Force jets and one drone in “self-defense,” claiming Rafale jets – sophisticated multi-role fighters made in France – were among those downed as well as a MiG. India has defended its military operation in Pakistan, claiming that its actions in response to last month’s massacre were “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,” India’s defense ministry said in a statement. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack on the tourist spot of Pahalgam. It has also rejected India’s claim, saying Wednesday’s strikes largely harmed civilians and targeted mosques across six locations in its territory.
Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif said his country “has every right to give a befitting reply.”“The Pakistani nation and the Pakistani Armed Forces know how to deal with the enemy very well,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. “The enemy will never be allowed to succeed in his nefarious objectives.” The Indian Army said three civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir were killed in shelling by Pakistani troops from across the Line of Control that divides the disputed territory of Kashmir.
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