Escalation Across the Border: India Launches Strikes After Kashmir Attack
Two weeks after a deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, India has launched a series of strikes on locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
India’s defence ministry said the strikes, named "Operation Sindoor", were part of a commitment to bring those responsible for the 22 April attack to justice. That attack left 25 Indian nationals and one Nepali citizen dead.
Pakistan, however, has strongly denied any involvement in the April incident. Calling the strikes "unprovoked", Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned that the "heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished".
Pakistan’s military claims it shot down five Indian aircraft and a drone. India has not yet commented on those claims. According to Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, at least 26 people were killed and 46 injured in the strikes. Meanwhile, the Indian army said that 10 civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling along the de facto border.
Where did India strike?
India said that in the early hours of Wednesday morning, it targeted nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. According to the Indian government, these were “terrorist infrastructure” sites—places where attacks were allegedly planned and coordinated.
India emphasized that the strikes did not hit Pakistani military installations and were designed to be “focused, measured, and non-escalatory.”
Pakistan reported that the strikes hit three main areas: Muzaffarabad and Kotli in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Bahawalpur in Punjab province. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told GeoTV the strikes hit civilian areas, dismissing India’s claims of targeting militant camps as false.
Why did India launch the strikes?
The strikes follow rising tensions after the 22 April attack in the scenic town of Pahalgam—one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the region in the past 20 years. Survivors say the attackers targeted Hindu men.
The incident sparked outrage across India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to hunt down those responsible "to the ends of the Earth" and said they would be punished “beyond their imagination.”
While India hasn’t publicly named any group responsible for the attack, police claim two of the attackers were Pakistani nationals. India accuses Pakistan of backing militant groups, a charge Islamabad has repeatedly denied.
In the two weeks since the Pahalgam attack, tensions have continued to rise, with both countries expelling diplomats, suspending visas, and shutting down border crossings. Many analysts had expected that some form of cross-border retaliation was likely, similar to India’s response to the 2019 Pulwama attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel.
This was the first major attack on civilians since India revoked Article 370 that gave Kashmir semi-autonomous status in 2019.