INDIA has launched missiles at several locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administred Kashmir, the government said, and Pakistan promised to respond to the attacks.
Several explosions were heard in the city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.
“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 government said in a statement.
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” it said.
A Pakistani military spokesman told broadcaster Geo that Pakistan’s response was under way, without providing details. The spokesman said five places were hit including two mosques.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military said two people have been killed and 12 others injured.
Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said among the targets that were hit were the cities of Muzaffarabad and Kotli.
Pakistan has said that if it is attacked, that it will “respond in force”, Hyder said, adding that the situation remains “quite fluid”.
The development comes amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in the aftermath of an attack on Hindu tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir last month.
India blamed Pakistan for the violence in which 26 men were killed and vowed to respond. Pakistan denied that it had anything to do with the killings.
After India’s strikes, the Indian army said in a post on X early on Wednesday: “Justice is served.”
Nitasha Kaul, the director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, said the strikes are “very concerning”.
“Once again, the worst affected are going to be the people in the region, the Kashmiris, who are caught between the competing and proprietorial and rival postures and attitudes of India and Pakistan,” Kaul told Al Jazeera.
Still, she said, the escalation is “not that surprising, because within India … there has been a domestic pressure building up for a more militarist response, given the fact that there is a particularly hyper-nationalist government in power.
“In that sense, sadly, this was a countdown to a greater escalation, and hopefully it won’t proceed much further beyond what has already happened with these strikes,” Kaul added.