Islamabad, Pakistan – Parts of Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir were rocked by multiple missile attacks by India early on Wednesday morning, in which at least eight people, including a three-year-old child, died.
Pakistan’s military said Indian missiles struck six cities. That included four different places in Punjab province — the first time that India has hit Pakistan’s most populous state since the 1971 war between the neighbours. The remaining two places targeted were Muzaffarabad and Kotli, both in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
India claimed that its “Operation Sindoor” targeted nine sites with “terrorist infrastructure”.
Pakistan scrambled its jets in response and claimed it had brought down five Indian planes – an assertion to which India has not yet responded.
The Indian attack came 15 days after the deadly attack on tourists in the picturesque Pahalgam town in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, for which India blamed armed groups which it claimed were backed by Pakistan. Islamabad denied any role in that attack.
Now, the nuclear-armed neighbours stand on the precipice of a full-blown military conflict.
Here is what we know about India’s attack, Pakistan’s response, and the background of this conflict so far.
Where did India hit Pakistan?
Pakistani military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, in an early morning news conference, said Indian missiles targeted four locations in Punjab and two in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The attack took place at about 1am on Wednesday (20:00 GMT, Tuesday).
The biggest attack was in Ahmedpur Sharqia, near Bahawalpur city in Punjab. According to Chaudhry, a mosque compound was hit and five people were killed, including a three-year-old girl.
Other attacks took place in Muridke city, a village near the city of Sialkot, and Shakar Garh, all in Punjab.
Two locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir – Muzaffarabad and Kotli – were also hit, and two mosques were destroyed, according to Pakistani authorities. A 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy were among those killed in the attacks, they said.
Chaudhry said at least eight Pakistanis were killed in all and 35 were injured in the attack.
The Punjab province declared a state of emergency, with hospitals and security forces on high alert, and schools shut on Wednesday.
How did Pakistan respond?
Soon after the Indian attacks, Pakistan’s leadership, both political and military, said the country had engaged its defences and its fighter jets were “airborne”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a post on the social media platform X, said a reply was “being given” to India.
Overnight, several claims were made by the Pakistanis, including shooting down up to five Indian jets, including three Rafales, the modern fighter planes which India procured from France in recent years.
Besides Chaudhry, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, as well as Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, also claimed on international news outlets that Pakistan had downed multiple Indian jets.
However, Pakistan’s military also said India had fired all of its missiles from Indian airspace. In other words, if Pakistan shot down Indian planes, it fired at them while they were in Indian airspace.
Indian authorities have yet to comment on the claims or whether all Indian air force planes that participated in the strikes returned securely to their respective bases.
Why did India strike Pakistan?
The latest round of conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations came following the attack in Baisaran valley in the Pahalgam region of Indian-administered Kashmir. Gunmen killed 26 men – 25 tourists and a local pony rider – after segregating them from women.
India has for years blamed Pakistan for supporting, arming and training the armed groups, which it accuses of fomenting trouble in the valley. Pakistan has insisted that it provides only moral and diplomatic support to Kashmir’s secessionist movement.
Following the attack last month, India blamed an obscure group, The Resistance Front (TRF), and claimed that it was a Pakistan-backed group with a haven there. Pakistan, while issuing a condemnation, vehemently denied its involvement and demanded a “transparent, credible, impartial” investigation into the incident.
India, which also targeted Pakistan in 2019 and 2016 following attacks on its troops, said it would retaliate, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the country would pursue the Kashmir attackers to “the ends of the earth”.
However, more than two weeks later, Indian soldiers are still combing the forests of Kashmir, searching for the attackers — even as it has now hit targets across the border.
Why is Kashmir important to India and Pakistan?
This is not the first time South Asia’s two largest countries – which have a combined population of more than 1.6 billion, about one-fifth of the world’s population – have gone to war over the region.
Indeed, the picturesque valley of Kashmir is at the heart of their tensions.
The two neighbours fought three of their four previous wars over Kashmir, spanning 22,200 square kilometres (85,800 square miles). Both countries currently control parts of Kashmir – with China controlling some parts of it – but continue to claim it in full.
How have tensions escalated since the Pahalgam attack?
Since April 22, tensions have escalated, culminating in already limited diplomatic relations taking a further hit.
- India has suspended its participation in the Indus Waters Treaty, under which it shares waters from six rivers with Pakistan. Because India is the upper riparian state, it could, in theory, restrict Pakistan’s access to water to which it is entitled and on which it depends. India also revoked visas for Pakistani nationals.
- Pakistan threatened to suspend the Simla Agreement.
- Both countries have expelled each other’s diplomats and nationals, while the nations have also closed their borders and shuttered airspace.
Within Indian-administered Kashmir, authorities have detained more than 2,000 residents, some of them under antiterrorism laws, demolished homes of alleged fighters and imposed strict security measures.
Why did India call it Operation Sindoor?
The Indian military has dubbed its missile strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir “Operation Sindoor”. That name is significant.
Sindoor is the Hindi word for vermilion, a red pigment which married Hindu women often apply to their forehead. The name of India’s military operation is an apparent reference to the manner in which the attackers shot their victims in Pahalgam on April 22.
Multiple survivor accounts have detailed how the gunmen segregated male tourists from the women, and then pointedly identified those who were non-Muslim before shooting them dead, leaving their Hindu wives widowed. The sindoor is typically no longer worn after a woman’s husband passes away.
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