“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” it said.
“India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”
A photograph released by the Pakistan Armed Forces that it says shows a person being treated for injuries at a hospital in Bahawalpur following the Indian attack.Credit: Inter Services Public Relations via AP
The Indian army in a post on the social media platform X wrote: “Justice is served.” It did not provide further details.
Pakistani security officials said the missiles were fired into Pakistani-controlled territory in at least three locations. Indian TV channels showed video of explosions, fire, large plumes of smoke in the night sky and people fleeing. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
The officials – speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose details – said had Pakistan had launched retaliatory strikes, without providing any details.
A Pakistan military spokesman said six locations had been struck by 24 “impacts”. It said eight Pakistanis had been killed, 35 injured and two were missing. Earlier the military said at least two mosques had been hit and at least one child had died.
Residents and media in a building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, Pakistan on Wednesday.Credit: AP
The missiles struck locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, according to three Pakistani security officials. One hit a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, where a child was killed, and a woman and man were injured, one official said.
Pakistani army spokesman Lieutenant-General Ahmad Sharif told ARY News that the missiles were launched from within Indian territory and that no Indian aircraft had entered Pakistani airspace.
“This was a cowardly attack targeting innocent civilians under the cover of darkness,” Sharif told the broadcaster.
Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said other locations hit were near Muridke in Punjab and Kotli in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Security force officials outside a damaged building near Muzaffarabad.Credit: AP
It said the attack reportedly resulted in civilian casualties and posed a significant threat to commercial air traffic. “This reckless escalation has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict,” the statement said.
Multiple loud explosions were heard in the mountains around the city of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday, as well as in two other places in the region, Reuters witnesses and a Pakistani TV channel reported.
After the explosions, Muzaffarabad’s power was blacked out, the witnesses said. It was not immediately clear what the explosions were.
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Witnesses and one police officer at two sites on the frontier in Indian Kashmir said they heard loud explosions and intense artillery shelling as well as jets in the air.
An emergency declared in province of Punjab, the area’s chief minister said, adding that hospitals and security forces had been placed on high alert.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday afternoon, Washington time, that the Indian strikes were a “shame”.
“They’ve been fighting for a long time,” he said. “I just hope it ends very quickly.”
A UN spokesperson said the Secretary-General António Guterres was very concerned about the Indian military operations across the line of control and international border and called for maximum military restraint.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesperson said.
The strikes come amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in the aftermath of an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month, in which 26 people were killed.
Before Wednesday’s strikes, the defence minister Asif had warned of an “imminent” clash with India as a dispute over river water and blame for the Kahsmir terrorist attack, Bloomberg reported. Earlier in the day, Pakistani officials said that India has almost entirely stopped the flow of water across the border through the Chenab River.
