India says it has struck nine targets inside Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan proper. Pakistani forces subsequently launched some degree of retaliatory attacks. Fears that all-out fighting between the two nuclear-armed nations could erupt have been building since a deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region in April. Readers can first get up to speed on how the situation had already been deteriorating here.
The latest updates to this story can be found at the bottom.
Indian authorities have blamed the Pakistanis for the terrorist attack near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, which left 26 dead and 20 wounded. Officials in Pakistan have denied those allegations. A terrorist group called The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility. TRF and LeT are both opposed to Indian control of the long-disputed Kashmir region.
“A little while ago, the Indian Armed Forces launched ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed. Altogether, nine (9) sites have been targeted,” according to a statement from India’s Ministry of Defense. “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.”
“These steps come in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were murdered. We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable,” the statement added.
What platforms and munitions were employed in India’s attacks are unclear. Pakistani authorities have described them as being launched from “within India’s airspace.”
The exact nature of what India struck is also not clear. Sites in Kotli, Ahmadpur East, Muzaffarabad, Bagh, and Muridke were reportedly targeted. Ahmadpur East and Muridke are both in undisputed Pakistani territory.
There are reports that a madrassa, or Islamic school, in the Bahawalpur district of Pakistan’s Punjab region, where Ahmadpur East is situated, tied to Maulana Masood Azhar was among the targets. Azhar is the founder of another Pakistan-based terrorist organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Pakistani authorities have said that at least three people, including one child, were killed in the Indian attack on Bahawalpur, according to Reuters. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has alleged ties to both JeM and LeT.
Pakistani authorities immediately vowed to respond to what they described as “a shameful and cowardly” Indian operation that targeted civilians. There were subsequent reports of Pakistani forces responding to India’s operation, but the extent of the retaliation so far is unclear. Indian authorities have confirmed Pakistani artillery fire into areas of Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistani media outlets have reported strikes targeting Indian military outposts in the region, but that remains unconfirmed.
Pakistani authorities have also claimed to have shot down two Indian combat jets, but no hard evidence of this has yet emerged. Some imagery circulating online now claiming to show wreckage of the aircraft has been confirmed to be old and unrelated.
A state of emergency has now been declared in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Pakistan has also closed its airspace to commercial and other civilian air traffic for at least a period of 48 hours following India’s operation. A number of airliners that were airborne when the strikes began had to divert.
This is the most significant fighting between India and Pakistan since 2019, which was also touched off by a limited Indian operation targeting sites in Pakistan following a terrorist attack. That confrontation occurred during President Donald Trump’s first term, and Mike Pompeo, who was Secretary of State at the time, has since said that there were serious concerns about that conflict escalating into a nuclear exchange.
“It’s a shame. We just heard about it,” Trump said when asked about the situation today. “I just hope it ends very quickly.”
“The cunning enemy has carried out cowardly attacks on five locations in Pakistan. Pakistan has every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India, and a forceful response is being given,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has now written in a post on X. “The entire nation stands with the Pakistani armed forces, and the morale and spirit of the entire Pakistani nation are high. The Pakistani nation and the Pakistani armed forces know how to deal with the enemy. We will never allow the enemy to succeed in their nefarious goals.”
It is already Wednesday morning in South Asia, and Pakistani authorities are reportedly set to hold an urgent top-level national security meeting.
While India has framed Operation Sindoor as limited and “non-escalatory,” it remains to be seen how the new fighting that has erupted between it and Pakistan will now evolve.
Update: 7:25 PM EST –
India’s Embassy in the United States has put out an additional statement regarding Operation Sindoor. It notes that India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, spoke directly with interim U.S. National Security Advisor and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the actions taken.
“India’s actions have been focused and precise. They were measured, responsible, and designed to be non-escalatory in nature,” the statement adds. “No Pakistani civilian, economic, or military targets have been hit. Only known terror camps were targeted.”
There are reports that Rubio is also in contact with his Pakistani counterpart.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister has now also put out a formal statement referring to India’s operation as an “unprovoked and blatant act of war” and saying his country “reserves the right to respond appropriately at a time and place of its choosing.”
Claims about Indian losses of crewed combat jets and drones continue to grow, but so far remain unconfirmed.
Casualties as a result of Operation Sindoor have risen to eight dead and 35 injured, with at least two other individuals missing, according to Pakistani authorities.
Unconfirmed footage claiming to show Pakistani artillery strikes on Indian positions is now emerging.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,” U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has told the BBC. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”
Update: 10:18 PM EST –
Video has emerged that may point to the loss of at least one Indian combat jet. The footage, which is said to have been shot in Indian’s Punjab region, looks to show the remains of a French-made MICA missile. The Indian Air Force acquired radar and infrared-homing versions of the MICA in the mid-2010s, originally to arm Mirage 2000 fighters. India’s newer Rafales can also employ these missiles. In 2020, the Indian Air Force also reportedly conducted a test launch of a MICA from one of its Russian-made Su-30MKI Flankers, but there are no indications that this is now an operational combination. Pakistan does not have the MICA in its inventory.
Pakistani authorities have now claimed specifically have downed three Indian Rafales, as well as one Su-30MKI and one MiG-29, as well as various drones.
Media outlets in India have also now reported that the Indian Air Force lost at least three combat jets in the course of Operation Sindoor. Reuters has also now reported that an Indian combat jet “crashed” for unspecified reasons somewhere in Jammu and Kashmir, and that its pilot was injured and taken to the hospital.
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