At least eight people were killed and 35 others injured in air strikes by India inside Pakistan overnight.
India said the strikes targeted terror camps it said were located inside Pakistan. The strikes came after India accused Pakistan of involvement in an April 22 attack by gunmen that killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, which has escalated tensions between the two countries.
“After receiving information that Pakistan-based terrorist groups were involved in last month’s terror attack on a tourist spot in Kashmir, we took a premeditated action targeting known terror camps,” the Indian military said.
The Pakistani government has described the Indian strikes as a “blatant and unjustifiable act of war” that it says violates its sovereignty. It has promised to respond to the attacks in due course, and to select the locations where it will carry out its own strikes.
Pakistan also said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets, three Rafales, one MiG-29 and one SU-30, which were targeted during the Indian airstrikes inside Pakistan.
Since the terrorist attack on the tourists, tensions between the two countries have increased, with Hindu extremist groups supporting India’s ruling party calling for a strong response from Delhi.
Indian and Pakistani troops on the border also exchanged gunfire on Wednesday before India’s attack on Pakistani territory last night.
India and Pakistan have fought at least four major wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Their conflict is over the administration of the Kashmir region, which is partly controlled by India and partly by Pakistan.
India, a Hindu-majority country, has long accused Pakistan, a Muslim country, of supporting terrorist groups that oppose India’s unity. Delhi has repeatedly accused Islamabad of being involved in attacks inside India.
The two countries, which were one country before the British partition in 1947, are also locked in a nuclear arms race, with both sides possessing the deadly weapons.
