ISLAMABAD: The office of the prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, has said the country’s armed forces have been authorised to undertake “corresponding actions” after India’s air strikes on Wednesday (May 7).
At least 26 people were killed after India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations on Wednesday, in what Pakistan’s leader called an “act of war”.
Pakistan has claimed five Indian fighter jets were shot down after the strikes against Pakistani territory amid the worst fighting between the two nuclear-armed nations for decades.
Indian defence ministry officials have not confirmed the figure.
Pakistani officials said the Indian strikes hit at least two sites previously tied to banned militant groups.
India claimed to have hit nine targets it described as “terrorist infrastructure” in the attacks on Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir.
One strike hit the Subhan Mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, killing 13 people including a child, according to Zohaib Ahmed, a doctor at a nearby hospital.
At least three civilians were also killed in Indian-controlled Kashmir by Pakistani shelling, the Indian army said in a statement.
Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad said on Wednesday that 10 relatives of its leader Masood Azhar were killed in an Indian attack.
India said it struck infrastructure used by militants linked to last month’s massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. Twenty-six men were killed after Islamist assailants target Hindu tourists.
Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbours since the attack, which India has blamed Pakistan for backing. Islamabad has denied the accusation.
Turkey’s foreign ministry has urged India and Pakistan to act with “common sense”, and said that India’s attacks risked igniting an all-out war in the region.
Pakistan’s prime minister condemned Wednesday’s air strikes and said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks” and that his country would retaliate.
“Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,” Sharif said.
Sharif has convened a meeting of the national security committee for Wednesday morning.
The missiles hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, said Pakistan’s military.
At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 injured, according to officials.
India’s defence ministry said the strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned”.
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” the statement said, adding that “India has demonstrated considerable restraint.”
Pakistani officials said the strikes hit at least two sites previously tied to banned militant groups.
The mosque in Bahawalpur is adjacent to a seminary that once served as the central office of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group outlawed in 2002. Officials say the group has had no operational presence at the site since the ban.
Another missile hit a mosque in Muridke, damaging its structure. A sprawling building located nearby served as the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba until 2013, when Pakistan banned the group and arrested its founder.
The attack in Kashmir was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself Kashmir Resistance.
Along the Line of Control, which divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, there were heavy exchanges of fire.
The Indian army said three civilians were killed when Pakistani troops “resorted to arbitrary firing”, including gunfire and artillery shelling, across the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries, and their international border. It said it was “responding in a proportionate manner.”
Shortly after India’s strikes, aircraft fell in two villages in India-controlled Kashmir.
State-run Pakistan Television, quoting security officials, said the country’s air force shot down five Indian jets in retaliation but provided no additional detail. There was no immediate comment from India about Pakistan’s claim.
Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry has said Indian forces had launched the strikes from inside Indian airspace.
The debris of plane parts were scattered across a village in the outskirts of the region’s main city, including in a school and a mosque compound, according to Srinagar police and residents.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement late on Tuesday that secretary general Antonio Guterres called for maximum military restraint from both countries.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the statement read.
Indian politicians from different political parties lauded the strikesm, however.
“Victory to Mother India,” India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, wrote on X.
India’s main opposition Congress party called for national unity and said it was “extremely proud” of the country’s army.
“We applaud their resolute resolve and courage,” Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Pakistan said India’s strikes posed a significant threat to commercial air traffic. “This reckless escalation has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir shut Srinagar city’s airport for civilian flights following directions from the Indian air force, senior airport official said Javed Anjum said.
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir also closed all schools and other educational institutions in at least seven border areas and the area around Srinagar airport, officials said. – Agency
