Fifteen days after the terror attack in Pahalgam that took the lives of 26 tourists, the Indian Air Force (IAF) announced that it had launched missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) on the night of 6 May.
In a statement issued on 7 May, the Indian government says “nine sites have been targeted.”
“A little while ago, Indian armed forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POK) from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” said the Indian statement.
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Further: “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”
The statement adds that the attack was ordered after last month’s deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir. “We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable,” it said.
Pakistan’s military spokesperson said that residents in Muzaffarabad, the biggest city in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), were jolted awake by huge explosions.
India said three civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling on its side of the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides the province of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed states had soared after four heavily armed terrorists attacked emerged from the forest outside Pahalgam last month and shot dead tourists, honeymooners among them.
India says it has “evidence pointing towards the clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists” in the attack. Pakistan has denied any link.
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Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told the Pakistani channel Geo TV that India had launched missiles at Pakistan from within its own airspace. He further added that the strikes hit civilian areas. India’s claim of “targeting terrorist camps” is false, he alleged.
Pakistan’s military spokesperson, the director general of Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), told Geo TV that three locations have been hit by Indian missiles. According to the spokesperson, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the locations targeted were Muzaffarabad and Kotli in PoK, apart from Bahawalpur in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Islamabad “will respond to this [attack] at a time and place of its choosing,” said Chaudhry. “All of our air force jets are airborne,” he said, calling the attack “shameful” and “cowardly.”
The Indian army said on 7 May that Pakistan had “fired artillery in Bhimber Gali in the Poonch-Rajauri area” in Kashmir, just across the dividing lines. India’s armed forces are “responding appropriately in a calibrated manner,” the army said in a post on X.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that he is monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely. Earlier on Wednesday, the Indian embassy in Washington said that India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had spoken to Rubio “and briefed him on the actions taken.”
US President Donald Trump had also responded to media questions about India’s strike, calling it “a shame.”
“I just hope it ends very quickly,” Trump said while speaking at the White House.
Rubio said he echoed the US president’s comments “that this hopefully ends quickly”. He also said that he would continue to engage with both Indian and Pakistani leadership “towards a peaceful resolution.”
The Chinese foreign ministry has called India’s military operation against Pakistan “regrettable.” In response to a question on escalating tensions between the South Asian rivals, the foreign ministry spokesperson said China was “concerned” about the ongoing situation and asked both countries to “remain calm, exercise restraint and refrain from taking actions that may further complicate the situation.”
The hope right now is that matters do not get out of hand.
The author is a former colonel in the Indian Army.
