Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday the country’s top national security body had authorized its armed forces to take “corresponding actions” in response to Indian strikes inside Pakistani territory in which 26 civilians were killed overnight.
In the sharpest military escalation in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed rivals, the Indian government said it struck nine Pakistani "terrorist infrastructure" sites where a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 had been planned. The assault took place on the tourist hill station of Pahalgam in the part of Kashmir governed by India, with 26 men killed.
The Pakistani military said six locations across its territory - Ahmedpur East, Muridke, Sialkot, Shakargarh in the eastern province of Punjab and Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir - were targeted. Azad Kashmir is the part of the disputed Kashmir valley that is administered by Pakistan.
In response, Pakistan military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said five Indian planes and one combat drone that had attacked Pakistan were shot down, naming three Rafales and an MiG-29 and Su-57 each.
“In consonance with Article-51 of the UN Charter, Pakistan reserves the right to respond, in self-defence, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty,” PM Sharif’s office said in a statement after he chaired a meeting of the National Security Committee, referring to the right of self-defense according to Chapter VII, Article 51, of the UN Charter.
“The Armed Forces of Pakistan have duly been authorized to undertake corresponding actions in this regard.”
The statement added that India, “against all sanity and rationality, has once again ignited an inferno in the region,” saying the responsibility for ensuing consequences lay squarely with New Delhi.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said the Chargé d’Affaires had been summoned "to receive Pakistan’s strong protest over the unprovoked Indian strikes.”
“The Indian side was warned that such reckless behavior poses a serious threat to regional peace and stability.”
“Terrorist camps”
In New Delhi, two Indian military spokespersons told a briefing Indian forces had attacked facilities linked to militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistani officials say India only hit civilian infrastructure.
The strikes targeted "terrorist camps" that served as recruitment centers, launchpads, and indoctrination centers, and housed weapons and training facilities, the Indian spokespersons said.
They said Indian forces used niche technology weapons and carefully chose warheads to avoid collateral damage to civilians and civilian infrastructure, but did not elaborate on the specifics or methods used in the strikes.
"Intelligence and monitoring of Pakistan-based terror modules showed that further attacks against India were impending, therefore it was necessary to take pre-emptive and precautionary strikes," Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, the top official in its external affairs ministry, told the briefing.
The joint briefing by the Indian military and foreign ministry listed past attacks in India blamed on Pakistan, with Misri saying Pakistan had not done anything to "terrorist infrastructure" after the Pahalgam attack, which triggered the latest standoff.
Pakistan had denied involvement in the attack and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had offered to be part of any credible and transparent investigation, which he reiterated in the latest statement by the NSC.
Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947. Both rule it in part and claim it in full and have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants involved in a separatist insurgency in its part of Kashmir since 1989, which Islamabad denies, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination.
The current confrontation is reminiscent of the last major military standoff between the two nations in 2019, when an Indian airstrike in the northwestern town of Balakot was followed by Pakistani retaliatory action, including the downing of an Indian fighter jet and the capture of its pilot, who was later released in a gesture of goodwill.
On Wednesday morning, the South Asian neighbors also exchanged intense shelling and heavy gunfire across much of their de facto border called the Line of Control, which divides disputed Kashmir between them.
The shelling across the frontier in Kashmir killed 10 civilians and injured 48 in the Indian part of the region, police there told media. At least six people were killed on the Pakistani side, Reuters reported, quoting officials.
Four local government sources in Indian-administered Kashmir told Reuters three fighter jets had crashed in separate areas of the Himalayan region during the night. Indian defense ministry officials have not officially confirmed the report.
(With input from Reuters)
