Islamabad, Pakistan / New Delhi, India
CNN
—
New Delhi and Islamabad ramped up hostile rhetoric for a second day after India’s assault on parts of Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir – igniting fears as both nations stand on the brink of a wider conflict.
The spike in cross-border fire puts India and Pakistan in dangerous territory, with Islamabad vowing to retaliate against New Delhi’s assault early Wednesday, as the international community calls for restraint.
India’s strikes have killed at least 31 people across Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, including a 3-year-old girl, and wounded 46 others, according to a military spokesperson. A senior Indian defense source said at least 16 civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir.
New Delhi said the strikes are in response to the massacre of 26 people – mostly Indian tourists – who were killed in April when gunmen stormed a scenic mountain spot in the India-administered part of Kashmir, a long-disputed border region. India blamed Pakistan for the shooting, which Islamabad denied.
Here’s what we know so far.
India launched “Operation Sindoor” in the early hours of Wednesday morning local time (Tuesday night ET) in both Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Indian officials claimed no Pakistani civilian, economic or military sites were struck in the 25-minute operation, which targeted the “terrorist infrastructure” of two militant groups – Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
But Pakistan is painting a different picture of the strikes – saying civilians were killed and mosques were hit across six locations. CNN has yet to verify those claims.
Some of those strikes hit the densely populated province of Punjab, Pakistan’s military said, and were the deepest India has struck inside Pakistan since one of their wars in 1971.
New Delhi also confirmed it targeted air defense systems in several locations in Pakistan on Thursday morning. The government announcement marked the first time India confirmed its attacks on Pakistani military installations.
India warned its latest response came after Pakistan tried to attack military targets in northern and western India overnight.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for “continued alertness” and “clear communication” in his first comments since the recent escalation in hostilities started.
Speaking as he chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday, Modi stressed the need for strong internal coordination and resilience.
Earlier, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told a meeting with political leaders that his country’s military operation against targets in Pakistan “remains ongoing.”
Pakistani security sources claimed they had shot down five Indian Air Force jets and one drone early Wednesday – including three Rafales, sophisticated French-made jets that New Delhi only acquired a few years ago.
A high-ranking French intelligence official later told CNN that Pakistan had downed one Rafale, and that French authorities were looking into whether any more were brought down.
One senior Pakistani security source said 125 jets fought for over an hour, staying in their own airspaces and firing missiles from afar, while Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said they had blown the five Indian jets to “smithereens.”
Then on Thursday, Pakistan said it downed another 25 loitering munition Harop drones across the country – which are Israeli-made flying bombs guided by an operator.
One of the drones was able to “partially” engage its target near Lahore – a city of around 13 million people near the border with India – wounding four army personnel, according to Pakistan Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry.
The military official described India’s latest drone strikes as “a serious provocation.” “The security of the region and beyond is at risk,” added Chaudhry.
India’s government stayed silent after Pakistan’s claims of shooting down Indian planes first surfaced on Wednesday. The Indian embassy in China pushed back against what it called “disinformation” after Chinese state media reported its planes had been downed. CNN has been unable to verify Pakistan’s claim and has reached out to the Indian Air Force and Ministry of Defense for comment.
But multiple reports of plane crashes in Indian territory have emerged since.
In India’s Punjab province, eyewitnesses and a local government official said a plane crashed out of the night sky in the early hours of Wednesday – around the same time Pakistan claims it shot down the jets. The official told CNN the aircraft was unidentified but “seems to be ours.”
And in Indian-administered Kashmir, eyewitnesses and a local official in the village of Wuyan said an unidentified aircraft crashed on Wednesday. Photos by AFP news agency showed plane wreckage, though it’s unclear who the aircraft belongs to or what brought it down.
The two sides have exchanged shelling and gunfire across the LoC, the de facto border that divides Kashmir, nearly every day since the April 22 massacre that triggered the latest escalation.
Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir ordered citizens to evacuate from areas deemed dangerous on Wednesday, with some residents telling CNN they were staying in underground bunkers.
The strikes have disrupted flights and sowed confusion, with Pakistan opening and closing parts of its airspace. Multiple major international airlines are avoiding flying over Pakistan.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been a flashpoint in India-Pakistan relations since both countries gained their independence from Britain in 1947.
The two nations to emerge from the bloody partition of British India – Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan – both claim Kashmir in full and, months after becoming independent, fought their first of three wars over the territory.
The divided region is now one of the most militarized places in the world.
India has long accused Pakistan of harboring militant groups there that conduct attacks across the border, something Islamabad has long denied.
The massacre in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam in April sparked widespread anger in India, putting heavy pressure on the Hindu-nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India immediately blamed Islamabad, sparking tit-for-tat retaliatory measures in which both countries downgraded ties, canceled visas for each other’s citizens, and saw India pull out of a key water-sharing treaty.
The last India-Pakistan war over Kashmir in 1999 killed more than 1,000 Pakistani troops, by the most conservative estimates.
In the decades since, the two countries have clashed multiple times, most recently in 2019 when India conducted airstrikes in Pakistan after it blamed Islamabad for a suicide car bomb attack in the region.
But those recent clashes did not explode into all-out war. Both sides are aware of the risks; since 1999, the two countries have worked to strengthen their militaries, including arming themselves with nuclear weapons.
The strikes have raised global alarm and pleas for the two nations to prevent further confrontation.
The United Arab Emirates, China, Russia, Turkey and Japan are among the countries urging both sides to de-escalate. United Nations leaders have similarly voiced concern, while well-known activists including Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malal Youfsafzai have called for peace.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he was willing to assist in easing the violence – saying on Wednesday, “I get along with both. I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out.”
CNN’s Hira Humayun and Nic Robertson contributed to this story.
