By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

The India-Pakistan War

India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations early Wednesday in what Pakistan's leader called an act of war.

Hours after India conducted a series of strikes on terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), dubbed Operation Sindoor, the government said that the hits had destroyed the camp where terrorists Ajmal Kasab and David Headley had trained.

The government further said that the strikes were measured and non-escalatory in nature and were aimed at dismantling the terror infrastructure. “Operation Sindoor was launched to deliver justice to the victims of Pahalgam,” they added.

Heavily nationalist rhetoric has colored the coverage from many Indian news channels since New Delhi’s strikes against Pakistan.

“How India crushed the enemy,” flashed a headline on one news channel. “India strikes Pakistan hard,” read another.

One news organization carried an image depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a Captain America-esque shield with the colors of the Indian national flag.

Pakistan said it shot down five Indian Air Force jets and a drone. India has not confirmed the fighter jet losses. Pakistani security sources said three of the five planes downed were Rafale fighter jets, prized assets of the Indian Air Force bought from a French manufacturer.

Armed insurgents in Kashmir have resisted Delhi for decades, with many Muslim Kashmiris supporting the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India accuses Pakistan of backing militants – a claim Pakistan denies.

In 2019 Narendra Modi’s government launched a severe security crackdown in Indian-administered Kashmir and revoked the region’s special status, which had granted it limited autonomy since 1949.

The move fulfilled a longstanding Hindu-nationalist pledge and was widely welcomed across India, but angered many in the territory itself.

New rules were implemented that allowed outsiders to buy land in Kashmir for the first time, which many saw as an attempt by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) to dispossess them of their land and change the Muslim demography of the region.

Control of Kashmir, in the foothills of the Himalayas, has been disputed since India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Both claim it in full, but each controls a section of the territory, separated by one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders: the “line of control” based on a ceasefire border established after their 1947-48 war.

India and Pakistan have gone to war twice since over Kashmir, most recently in 1999.

The dispute stems from the partition of colonial India in 1947, when small, semi-autonomous “princely states” across the subcontinent were being folded into India or Pakistan, and the local ruler chose to become part of India despite the fact the area had a Muslim majority.

Pakistan’s military says it has successfully test-fired a ballistic missile as tensions with neighboring India over a deadly shooting attack in Indian-administered Kashmir last month remain high.

The surface-to-surface missile, named the Abdali Weapon System, with a range of 450km (280 miles), was successfully tested as part of an exercise on Saturday, Pakistan’s government said.

It added that the launch was “aimed at ensuring the operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters, including the missile’s advanced navigation system and enhanced maneuverability features”.

The tactical missile, which can carry conventional and nuclear warheads, is named after Ahmad Shah Abdali, the 18th-century founder of modern Afghanistan who led numerous invasions of the Indian subcontinent.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the scientists, engineers, and those behind the successful missile test.

The ballistic missile’s test-firing came three days after Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Islamabad had “credible intelligence” that India intends to launch a military strike within 24 to 36 hours in response to the killing of 25 male tourists and a Kashmiri last month in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India and Pakistan both stake a claim on the entire Kashmir region, but rule over parts of it. They have seen tensions spike over the issue frequently since their independence from British rule in 1947.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of backing the April 22 attack in the scenic Pahalgam area by suspected Kashmiri rebels, and alleges that Pakistani nationals were involved in the killings. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he has given his military “full operational freedom” to respond as he promised to pursue those who had supported the attack “to the ends of the Earth”.

A relative cries as she sits outside the family home of a suspected separatist rebel, which was destroyed by Indian authorities in Khasipora village in Tral, south Kashmir, on April 27, 2025

Pakistani minister Tarar said the Indian leaders want to use the Pahalgam attack as a “false pretext” to potentially strike Pakistan.

On Friday, May 16, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir presided over a meeting of his top commanders about the “current Pakistan-India standoff”, a military statement said.

Munir “underscored the critical importance of heightened vigilance and proactive readiness across all fronts.

Since the attack – the deadliest in Kashmir on civilians in years – India and Pakistan have exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic barbs and expulsions, and shut border crossings. India also suspended its participation in the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan.

The two nuclear-armed countries have also exchanged gunfire along the militarized Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing Kashmir between them, while Pakistan has threatened to suspend its participation in the 1972 Simla Agreement that underpins the LoC.

People in Indian-administered Kashmir have been concerned about the devastating ramifications of a potential military conflict between the two nations.

Underneath Idia's Foreign Minister

 

Summary as of early morning, May 7, 2025

India has conducted what it has described as “precision strikes” in neighboring Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian side of the contested region that killed 26 people.

Twenty-six people, including a child, were killed in the overnight missile strikes, and 46 others have been injured, according to a Pakistani military spokesperson.

People look at a damaged part of an aircraft in Wuyan, near Srinagar, on 7 May

The Indian government said in a statement that nine non-military targets had been hit in the strikes, in what it called “Operation Sindoor.” India said it struck nine Pakistani “terrorist infrastructure” sites, some of them linked to the attack by Islamist militants in Indian Kashmir last month. Pakistan has refuted this, saying none of the targets were militant camps.

New Delhi said its actions had been “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”. It had displayed “considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”, it added. 

The Indian army, in a video on X, said “justice is served.”  Both countries also exchanged intense shelling and heavy gunfire across much of their de facto border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, police and witnesses told Reuters.

Indian security personnel stand guard in Wuyan near Srinagar.

Indian police and medics have said at least seven civilians were killed and 30 others wounded by Pakistani firing and shelling overnight.  

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks at five locations in Pakistan” 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 Indian government said in a statement that nine non-military targets had been hit in the strikes, in what it called “Operation Sindoor.

Security personnel cordon off a street near the site of a strike in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on Wednesday.

India said it struck nine Pakistani “terrorist infrastructure” sites, some of them linked to the attack by Islamist militants in Indian Kashmir last month. 

Pakistan has refuted this, saying none of the targets were militant camps.  New Delhi said its actions had been “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”. 

It had displayed “considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”, it added. The Indian army, in a video on X, said “justice is served. ”

Security personnel patrol a street the morning a reported attack on tourists near Pahalgam in Indian controlled Kashmir, on April 23.

Both countries also exchanged intense shelling and heavy gunfire across much of their de facto border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, police and witnesses told Reuters. 

Indian police and medics have said at least seven civilians were killed and 30 others wounded by Pakistani firing and shelling overnight.  Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks at five locations in Pakistan” 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 Indian government said in a statement that nine non-military targets had been hit in the strikes, in what it called “Operation Sindoor.” India said it struck nine Pakistani “terrorist infrastructure” sites, some of them linked to the attack by Islamist militants in Indian Kashmir last month.

Pakistan has refuted this, saying none of the targets were militant camps.  New Delhi said its actions had been “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.

It had displayed “considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”, it added. The Indian army, in a video on X, said “justice is served.”  

Both countries also exchanged intense shelling and heavy gunfire across much of their de facto border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, police and witnesses told Reuters. 

Indian police and medics have said at least seven civilians were killed and 30 others wounded by Pakistani firing and shelling overnight.  Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks at five locations in Pakistan” 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. 

He said his country and its forces “know very well how to deal with the enemy. . … We will never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious objectives.”  Pakistan says five Indian air force jets were shot down, a claim not confirmed by India. However, four local government sources in Indian Kashmir told Reuters that three fighter jets had crashed in separate areas of the region during the night.  

The United Nations has called for maximum restraint from both India and Pakistan. “The secretary-general [António Guterres] is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. 

He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,” the spokesperson said. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”

India launched air strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday

The development marks a dramatic escalation in the long-simmering conflict between the neighboring nuclear powers. 

Bilateral ties between the two countries plummeted after gunmen killed 26 mainly Hindu civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir last month. 

Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday warned that water from India flowing into neighboring countries including Pakistan would be stopped, days after suspending a key water treaty with Islamabad.

Syed Asim Munir, a former spy chief who was appointed as Pakistan’s army chief in 2022, will play a key role in determining how far the conflict may escalate following India’s strikes on Wednesday.

Seen as a hardliner on India by critics, Munir is expected to face pressure at home after India’s missile attack, which it said had struck “terrorist infrastructure,” and Islamabad said had killed at least eight people, including children.

Munir’s appointment came amid intense debate around the military’s influence on public life.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh were briefing the media in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s powerful military is often accused of meddling in the politics of a country that has experienced numerous coups and been ruled by generals for extended periods since it gained independence from Britain in 1947.

“I think that for Pakistan not to retaliate somehow would undermine his (Munir’s) credibility and his influence,” said Malcolm Davis, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

“For domestic political reasons and for… bureaucratic and organizational politics within the Pakistani military, I think that he will probably play a key role in deciding how Pakistan responds.”

CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton said Munir joined “a long line of military leaders who have basically called the shots in Pakistani politics for a very long time.”

He said Munir has viewed Pakistan’s conflict with India through the lens of religion and treated the tensions as a national issue.

“He believes that he is defending the honor of his country,” Leighton said.

Against the backdrop of him is the Indian government’s nationalist sentiment which adds to the “recipe for potential conflict,” the retired colonel said.

“He is… running against a very strong Indian leadership that is seeing it from the opposite side, very much in the Hindu nationalist, Hindu nationalist point.”

 

 

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