India strikes Pakistan in aftermath of Kashmir tourist killings

India attacked nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday with at least three deaths reported, and Pakistan said it was mounting a response as the worst fighting in years erupted between the longstanding enemies.

Armies of the nuclear-armed neighbours exchanged intense shelling and heavy gunfire across their frontier in disputed Kashmir in at least three places, police and witnesses told Reuters.

India’s offensive occurred amid heightened tensions in the aftermath of an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month. Islamist assailants killed 26 men in the April 22 attack, the worst such violence targeted at civilians in India in nearly two decades.

Pakistan said India launched missiles at three places, but an Indian government statement did not detail the nature of the strikes. India said it struck “terrorist infrastructure” where attacks against it were planned and directed.

Indian TV channels showed video of explosions, fire, large plumes of smoke in the night sky and people fleeing in several places in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

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.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad was responding to the Indian attacks but did not provide details. U.S. President Donald Trump called the situation “a shame” and added, “I hope it ends quickly.”

An emergency was declared in Pakistan’s populous province of Punjab, its chief minister said, and hospitals and emergency services were on high alert.

“A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” the Indian statement said.

(Source: Reuters)