India launches air strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir

By Hari Kuma, NEW DELHI India

India said early Wednesday that it had conducted strikes on Pakistan, two weeks after more than two dozen civilians were killed in a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The Indian government said its forces had struck nine sites in Pakistan and on Pakistan’s side of the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistani military officials said at least eight people were killed and 35 others wounded after six places were hit in Punjab Province and its part of Kashmir.

At least two aircraft were reported to have gone down in India and the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir. But Pakistan’s claims to have shot down Indian aircraft, including some of its newest fighter jets, were still unconfirmed.

While India in recent years has struck Pakistan-administered Kashmir and areas close to it during periods of rising tensions, the attack on Wednesday on Punjab, in Pakistani territory outside the contested region, represented an escalation in the conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries.

After the attacks, India was bracing for a response from Pakistan, its neighbor and nemesis for more than seven decades. The two nations have fought several wars, the most recent in 1999, and have edged to the brink more than once since then.

As tensions have sharpened again, global leaders have warned of potentially dire consequences if the two sides fail to de-escalate.

The wreckages were found in Akhnoor, Ramban and Pampore regions of Jammu and Kashmir - Courtesy

India said on Wednesday that it had struck Pakistan after gathering evidence “pointing towards the clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists” in last month’s attack on civilians in a tourist area in Kashmir.

It said that its military actions had been “measured, responsible and designed to be nonescalatory in nature.” It added that it had targeted only “known terror camps.”

In its own statement on Wednesday, the Pakistani government called the Indian strikes “an unprovoked and blatant act of war” that had “violated Pakistan’s sovereignty.”

Pakistan said it would respond at “a time and place of its own choosing.” Pakistani military officials said they had begun a “measured but forceful” response.

Indian officials and news channels said at least one aircraft had gone down on the Indian side of Kashmir. A second aircraft was reported to have been downed in the Indian state of Punjab, according to Indian news reports and a witness account.

Analyzing witness photos from one wreckage site, in the village of Wuyan in India-administered Kashmir, a weapons researcher identified the debris as an external fuel tank for a plane.

The analyst, Trevor Ball, of Armament Research Services, said the tank was likely from a Rafale or Mirage fighter jet, both of which are made by the French manufacturer Dassault Aviation and used by India. Mr. Ball could not confirm whether the tank had come from an aircraft that had been hit by enemy fire.

Pakistani military officials claimed, without providing proof, that their forces had downed several Indian aircraft, including Rafale jets, which are among the newest and most advanced in India’s air force.

Indian officials and residents in the areas of Uri and Poonch, on the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir, reported that Pakistani shelling since the cross-border strikes had killed at least three people, wounded at least 10 and damaged several houses.

Manoj Sinha, the lieutenant governor of India’s Kashmir region, said he had ordered that villagers be moved to safer locations.