India strikes Pakistan over tourist killings, Pakistan says it will retaliate
5/7/2025 6:37:00 PM
India hit Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir with missiles on Wednesday and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian aircraft and vowed to retaliate, in the worst clash in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
India told more than a dozen foreign envoys in New Delhi that "if Pakistan responds, India will respond", fuelling fears of a larger military conflict in one of the world's most dangerous - and most populated - nuclear flashpoint regions.
The escalation comes at a fragile moment for Pakistan's $350 billion economy, which recently emerged from a crisis with the government trying to shore up finances and make progress on the $7 billion International Monetary Fund loan programme of 2024.
India said it struck nine "terrorist infrastructure" sites, some of them linked to an attack by Islamist militants that killed 25 Hindu tourists and one local in Indian Kashmir last month.
Pakistan said at least 26 of its civilians had been killed and that India "had ignited an inferno in the region".
Islamabad pledged to respond "at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty", emphatically rejecting Indian allegations it had terrorist camps on its territory.
The Indian strikes included Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, for the first time since the last full-scale war between the old enemies more than half a century ago.
"The targets we had set were destroyed with exactness according to a well-planned strategy," India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. "We have shown sensitivity by ensuring that no civilian population was affected in the slightest."
Islamabad said none of the six locations targeted in Pakistan were militant camps. At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 wounded, a Pakistan military spokesperson said.
Indian TV channels showed videos of explosions, fire, large plumes of smoke in the night sky and people fleeing in several places in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, the Indian strike had badly damaged a mosque-seminary in the heart of the city. Five missiles killed three people in the two storey structure, which also had residential quarters, locals said.
Reuters journalists saw the roof and walls of the concrete building crumbled under the impact of the strikes and household items scattered on the first floor.
Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both sides claim in full and control in part.
India told more than a dozen foreign envoys in New Delhi that "if Pakistan responds, India will respond", fuelling fears of a larger military conflict in one of the world's most dangerous - and most populated - nuclear flashpoint regions.
The escalation comes at a fragile moment for Pakistan's $350 billion economy, which recently emerged from a crisis with the government trying to shore up finances and make progress on the $7 billion International Monetary Fund loan programme of 2024.
India said it struck nine "terrorist infrastructure" sites, some of them linked to an attack by Islamist militants that killed 25 Hindu tourists and one local in Indian Kashmir last month.
Pakistan said at least 26 of its civilians had been killed and that India "had ignited an inferno in the region".
Islamabad pledged to respond "at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty", emphatically rejecting Indian allegations it had terrorist camps on its territory.
The Indian strikes included Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, for the first time since the last full-scale war between the old enemies more than half a century ago.
"The targets we had set were destroyed with exactness according to a well-planned strategy," India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. "We have shown sensitivity by ensuring that no civilian population was affected in the slightest."
Islamabad said none of the six locations targeted in Pakistan were militant camps. At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 wounded, a Pakistan military spokesperson said.
Indian TV channels showed videos of explosions, fire, large plumes of smoke in the night sky and people fleeing in several places in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, the Indian strike had badly damaged a mosque-seminary in the heart of the city. Five missiles killed three people in the two storey structure, which also had residential quarters, locals said.
Reuters journalists saw the roof and walls of the concrete building crumbled under the impact of the strikes and household items scattered on the first floor.
Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both sides claim in full and control in part.