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India and Pakistan moved into open military conflict after New Delhi launched air strikes against its neighbour over last month’s deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian military jets and a combat drone in response to the strike, which appeared to be India’s most extensive military attack on its neighbour in decades.
India said it had carried out “precision strikes” on “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and the part of the disputed region of Kashmir that Pakistan administers.
India’s defence ministry did not specify the locations of the strikes but said “no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted”. It said its attacks were “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.
Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Pakistan’s military spokesperson, told reporters 26 Pakistanis had died, with 46 others injured, since India began its assault early Wednesday morning. He said 16 people were killed by Indian strikes in Punjab, the first to hit the heartland province of 120mn in decades. The dead include two three-year old girls and seven women, he added.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif termed India’s strikes an “act of war” and said on the X social media platform that his country had “every right to respond forcefully . . . and a strong response is indeed being given”.
Pakistani military and diplomatic officials told the Financial Times they had shot down five Indian fighter jets, including three French-made Rafales and two Russian-made planes, during Wednesday’s skirmish.
They claimed the aircraft attempted to fire at Pakistan from Indian airspace, and said they responded by shooting them down over India’s part of Kashmir.
India did not immediately confirm Pakistan’s claims.
The conflict between the two neighbours, which both claim Kashmir, came to a boil after gunmen killed 25 Indians and a Nepali citizen in Pahalgam, a tourist spot in Indian-administered Kashmir, on April 22.
Modi responded by vowing to “find, track and punish every terrorist” responsible for the attack, which shocked and angered Indians.
In a statement not credited to any official, India said overnight that it had “credible leads, technical inputs, testimony of the survivors and other evidence pointing towards the clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists” in the Pahalgam attack.
Police in Kashmir have said they were seeking three men, including two Pakistani citizens, in connection with the attack, and linked them to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack in Kashmir and has called for an independent investigation.
In response to the Pahalgam attack, India suspended a treaty under which it shares water with Pakistan in the Indus river basin, and the two countries sharply downgraded their relations, closing airspace and ports, suspending trade and shutting their land border.
India called Wednesday’s attack on Pakistan “Operation Sindoor”, a reference to the red mark Hindu women wear in their hair parting, the traditional Hindu symbol of marriage. A picture of a honeymooning couple attacked in Pahalgam, with the wife kneeling by the body of her husband, was widely shared in India after the attack.
Indians were bracing themselves for a likely Pakistani military response. On Tuesday, before the overnight strikes, India’s home ministry ordered a nationwide mock drill for emergency preparedness and civil defence.
Sharif, Pakistan’s leader, called a national security committee meeting for Wednesday morning. Pakistan has closed its airspace and shut schools in the part of Kashmir it administers, in the capital Islamabad, and throughout Punjab, a province of more than 120mn people.
“There will be retaliation of some kind by Pakistan in the coming hours,” said C Raja Mohan, an Indian international affairs analyst. “In the meantime, there is diplomacy going on behind the scenes and the US will be involved at some level.”
Washington, which has close ties with both India and Pakistan, has urged restraint. US President Donald Trump called the strikes “a shame” and said he hoped the conflict “ends very soon”.
China, which borders both countries, said India’s military operation was “regrettable” and urged both sides to exercise restraint.
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