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India and Pakistan engaged in intense artillery exchanges along their disputed border on Wednesday, following New Delhi’s lethal missile attacks on its long-time rival, marking the most severe violence between the two nuclear-armed nations in 20 years.
Reports indicated at least 43 fatalities, with Pakistan claiming that 31 civilians lost their lives due to Indian strikes and border fire, while India reported at least 12 casualties from Pakistani shelling.
This outbreak of violence occurred two weeks after India accused Pakistan of supporting an assault on the Indian-controlled portion of disputed Kashmir, a claim that Pakistan has refuted.
Since becoming independent from British rule in 1947, the two neighbouring countries have engaged in several wars over the divided territory.
The Indian army announced “justice is served,” stating that nine “terrorist camps” had been destroyed, while New Delhi asserted that its measures were “focused, measured and non-escalatory.”
Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Pakistan’s Defence Minister, accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of initiating the strikes to boost his domestic standing, asserting that Islamabad “won’t take long to settle the score.”
Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the spokesman for the Pakistan military, reported that five Indian jets were brought down across the border during the night.
An Indian senior security official, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that three of the fighter jets crashed on Indian territory.
The most significant Indian attack targeted an Islamic seminary near the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, resulting in the deaths of 13 individuals, according to the Pakistan military.
A health and education complex in Muridke, located 30 kilometres from Lahore, was devastated, along with a mosque in Muzaffarabad, the central city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where the caretaker was killed.
Among those who died in Wednesday’s strikes were four children, as reported by the Pakistan military.
Pakistan also alleged that India targeted a hydropower facility in Kashmir, causing damage to a dam structure, after India threatened to cut off water flow on its side of the border. It had previously cautioned that interfering with the rivers flowing into its territory would constitute an “act of war.”
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh remarked that the nighttime operation represented New Delhi’s “right to respond” following the attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, last month.
Pakistan refuted any connection to the Pahalgam incident and called for an impartial investigation.
