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India said it had launched strikes on nine sites in Pakistan amid mounting tensions following a deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been rising since last month when New Delhi linked Islamabad to an attack that killed 26 people.
While India’s defence ministry did not specify the locations of the “precision strikes” that took place early on Wednesday local time, it said they were “hitting terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The ministry added that “no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted”, saying India’s attacks were “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.
But Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif called India’s strikes an “act of war” and said on social media platform X that his country has “every right to give a robust response . . . and a strong response is indeed being given”.
Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, spokesperson for the Pakistan armed forces, told CNN that India’s air force had “martyred innocent civilians, which includes women and children” in missile strikes near the Punjab cities of Muridke and Bahawalpur, as well as in Bagh, Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan’s army spokesperson said that India had launched 24 strikes in six areas across the country. At least eight people, including five civilians, had been killed and 35 people had been injured, he said. Two children, aged three and 16, were among the dead, he said. The Financial Times could not independently verify his comments.
Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s information minister, said in a post on X on Wednesday morning that the country’s armed forces had shot down three Indian fighter jets and one drone as part of its “befitting” reply to India.
State broadcaster PTV reported that the country was launching artillery fire into Indian-administered Kashmir. The FT could not independently verify the information.
A statement from Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs said India used “stand-off weapons” and remained in Indian airspace during the strikes.
Pakistan has previously denied any involvement in the attack in Kashmir on April 22. But the two countries have downgraded diplomatic relations since the killings, and India has suspended participation in a key water treaty.
Asked about the strikes, US President Donald Trump called it a “shame”, saying he had “just heard about it”, and adding, “hope it ends very quickly”.
India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval briefed his US counterpart Marco Rubio on the action taken “shortly after the strikes”, India’s mission in Washington said.
Kashmir has been a significant flashpoint between India and Pakistan since both gained independence from Britain in 1947. The two countries claim the whole territory, but control parts of it, and have gone to war three times over it.
