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Pakistan vows to retaliate after wave of Indian missiles hits country Pakistan vows to retaliate after wave of Indian missiles hits country
(about 1 hour later)
The Indian government took credit for the strikes, and said they were retaliation for an attack on Hindu tourists last monthThe Indian government took credit for the strikes, and said they were retaliation for an attack on Hindu tourists last month
Loud explosions have been heard in several places in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir as India said it had attacked “terrorist infrastructure” in nine sites and Pakistan vowed to respond to the strikes. At least three people have been killed and 12 injured after India launched attacks on what it claimed were nine sites of “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir, in a sharp escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistani officials said that a child was killed and two other people injured in missile strikes early on Wednesday. Loud explosions were heard early on Wednesday, and power was blacked out in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, witnesses said.
After the explosions, power was blacked out in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, witnesses said. The missiles struck at least two locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and five in the country’s eastern Punjab province, Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, told the Guardian.
The missiles struck locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, according to three Pakistani security officials. One of them struck a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, where a child was killed, and a woman and man were injured, one official said. “We can confirm at least seven civilian areas have been targeted by Indian missiles fired from Indian airspace. We are in the process of retaliating. You will see Pakistan’s response before the morning,” Asif said.
The officials said Pakistan had launched retaliatory strikes, without providing any details. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media on the record.
The Indian government said in a statement that nine targets had been hit in the strikes, which it said were launched as a response to an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month in which 26 men were killed.The Indian government said in a statement that nine targets had been hit in the strikes, which it said were launched as a response to an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month in which 26 men were killed.
“A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed.“A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, hitting 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.“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.
But Asif denied that any of the targets were military installations, saying: “I invite international and national media to see these sites if they had any terrorists. All targeted sites were civilian sites.”
The missile attacks were reported around 1am local time. Pictures shared on social media showed the bloody body of a dead child and a seriously injured adult lying on stretchers. In a video widely shared on X a huge blast can be seen lighting up the night sky as smoke billows into the air.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said : “Pakistan has every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India, and a forceful response is being given.”
He said the “entire nation” stands with Pakistan’s armed forces on “how to deal with the enemy”.
“The Pakistani nation and the Pakistan armed forces know very well how to deal with the enemy,” he said. “We will never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious objectives.”
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s military told broadcaster ARY that India had attacked Pakistan with missiles in three places and that Pakistan would respond.A spokesperson for Pakistan’s military told broadcaster ARY that India had attacked Pakistan with missiles in three places and that Pakistan would respond.
The development comes amid soaring tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in the aftermath of the attack in the Baisaran Valley, a picturesque meadow in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist town in Kashmir. “We will retaliate at the time of our choosing,” said Pakistani military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, calling the strikes a “heinous provocation”.
India blamed Pakistan for the attack and vowed to respond. Pakistan denied that it had anything to do with the killings and said that it had intelligence that India was planning to attack. Soon after, India accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire agreement with artillery fire across the heavily militarised ‘“line of control”, which marks the de facto border in Kashmir.
More details soon… “Pakistan again violates the ceasefire agreement by firing artillery in Bhimber Gali in Poonch-Rajauri area,” the Indian army said in a post on X. The army “is responding appropriately in a calibrated manner,” it added.
Residents in the Kupwara district of Indian-administered Kashmir reported an exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops on the line of control.
“We are hearing constant loud bangs and some shells have landed near civilian areas,” Haji Sanaullah told the Guardian. “No one has been hurt so far.”
The escalation comes amid soaring tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in the aftermath of the attack in the Baisaran Valley, a picturesque meadow in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist town in Kashmir.
India blamed Pakistan for the attack and vowed to respond.
Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the line of control.
Wednesday’s missile strikes are a dangerous heightening of friction between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of British colonial India in 1947.
For days the international community has piled pressure on Pakistan and India to step back from the brink of war.
A UN spokesperson said that António Guterres, the UN secretary general, was “very concerned” about the Indian strikes across the international border and the line of control.
“He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries. The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesperson said.
The strikes came just hours after India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said that water flowing across India’s borders would be stopped. Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an “act of war”.
Modi did not mention Islamabad specifically, but his speech came after Delhi suspended its part of the 65-year-old Indus waters treaty, which governs water critical to Pakistan for consumption and agriculture.
“India’s water used to go outside, now it will flow for India,” Modi said in a speech in Delhi.