By AFP and published by CNA
The Indian government said it had attacked nine sites, describing them as “precision strikes at terrorist camps” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-administered side of the disputed region.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said on X that India has carried out “cowardly” attacks on five locations in Pakistan-administered territory, adding that Islamabad has every right to respond to the “act of war” imposed by India.
Sharif added that the entire nation stands with Pakistan’s armed forces on “how to deal with the enemy” and said: “The enemy will never be allowed to succeed in its evil intentions.”
Three civilians had been wounded in the strikes, which hit at least five locations, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told AFP.
“We have confirmed reports of three civilians killed, including one child,” Asif said.
In a later update, a military spokesman said the death toll has increased to eight.
Earlier, Pakistan’s military said that the five locations included three in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and two – Bahawalpur and Muridke – in the country’s most populous province of Punjab.
AFP correspondents in Pakistani-run Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.
“We will retaliate at the time of our choosing,” said Pakistani military spokesman Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, calling the strikes a “heinous provocation”.
Shortly after, India accused Pakistan of firing artillery across the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, which could be heard by AFP correspondents in the region.
India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the Apr. 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month by gunmen it said were from Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
That assault left 26 people dead, mainly Hindu men, in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam. No group has claimed responsibility.
New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.
Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since Apr. 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised Line of Control, according to the Indian army.
Wednesday’s missile strikes are a dangerous heightening of friction between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they gained independence from the British in 1947.
For days, the international community has piled pressure on Pakistan and India to step back from the brink of war.
Asked about the strikes, US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he hopes the fighting “ends very quickly”.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres was very concerned about the incident, his spokesperson said on Tuesday while calling for maximum military restraint from India and Pakistan.
“The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,” the spokesperson said.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”
Explosions near LOC
The Indian army, in a video posted on its X account after Wednesday’s strikes, said “justice is served”, with New Delhi adding that its actions “have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.
Indian police have issued wanted posters for three suspects – two Pakistanis and an Indian – who they say belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Pakistani military said it launched two missile tests in recent days, including a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450km – about the distance from the Pakistan border to New Delhi.
India was set to hold several civil defence drills on Wednesday, preparing people to “protect themselves in the event of a hostile attack”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after talks in Islamabad with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Tehran has offered to mediate between the two nations, and Araghchi will be the first senior foreign diplomat to visit both countries since the Apr. 22 attack sent relations plunging.
Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
India regularly blames its neighbour for backing armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.
“Act of war”
The strikes came just hours after 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 New 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 New Delhi.
“No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted,” it added. “India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”.
Indian fighter jets could be heard flying over Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir.
Loud explosions could also be heard in the town of Poonch, only about 16km from the Line of Control.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Rescue workers enter a building near the site of a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan’s Punjab province, on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Photo: AP/K.M. Chaudary and published by Yahoo!News
First insert: Indian army officers stand guard near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fire at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, on Apr 22, 2025. Photo: AP/Dar Yasin and published by CNA
Map: India launched missiles into Pakistan and Kashmir on Wednesday. (AP Digital Embed)
Third insert: Local residents examine a building damaged from a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan controlled Kashmir, on Wednesday, on May 7, 2025. Photo: AP/M.D. Mughal and published by Yahoo!News
Fourth insert: Indian security force personnel stand guard at the site of a suspected militant attack on tourists in Baisaran near Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, on Apr. 24, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi and published by CNA
Front Page: Security force officials stand outside a damaged building at a site of a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan controlled Kashmir, on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Photo: AP Photo/M.D. Mughal and published by Yahoo!News
Watch this video of shared on X by Kyle Becker
https://x.com/kylenabecker/status/1919852727628165384
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