India launched a series of military strikes on Pakistan on Wednesday while Pakistan claimed it shot down five Indian Air Force military jets in an escalation that has pushed the two nuclear-armed neighbors to the brink of war.
The Indian strikes are in response to the massacre of 26 people—mostly Indian tourists—who were killed in April when gunmen stormed a scenic mountain spot in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the attack, but Pakistan has denied this.
Pakistani security forces have claimed they shot down five Indian military jets and one drone during India’s attack. It has not been confirmed (by India) whether any jets have been lost.
“Operation Sindoor” was launched by India in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A government spokesperson said the target was “terrorist infrastructure” in both Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Indian officials confirmed nine sites were targeted, but no Pakistani civilians were struck and neither were economic or military sites.
Pakistan paints a different picture, saying civilians were killed, and mosques were hit. A Pakistani military spokesperson said six locations were hit in 24 strikes and that eight people were killed while 35 were wounded.
The densely populated province of Punjab is said to have been struck several times according to the military. These were the furthest India has struck within Pakistan since 1971, when the two countries battled each other in two of their wars.
On Wednesday, the two sides also exchanged shelling and gunfire across the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Kashmir.
The escalation has sent shock waves across the world, with the international community calling for restraint. The neighbors, who share a long history of conflict, have once again entered dangerous territory, with Pakistan calling the Indian strikes an “act of war.”
The previous bloody wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been a in Indian-Pakistan relations since both countries gained their independence from Britain in 1947.
Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full and only months after becoming independent, fought their first three wars over the territory. To this day, the region is one of the most heavily militarized places in the world.
The three wars over Kashmir have been particularly bloody. In the last one, in 1999, more than one thousand Pakistani troops were killed by the most conservative estimates.
In the decades since, militant groups have fought Indian security forces, with violence killing tens of thousands. The two countries have clashed numerous times, most recently in 2019, when India launched missile attacks on Pakistan after it blamed Islamabad for a suicide car bomb attack in the region.
India has long accused Pakistan of harboring militants, who conduct attacks across the border, there. Islamabad has long denied the claims.
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