Tensions between India and Pakistan have reached a dangerous new height following a series of Indian airstrikes across the border, prompting Islamabad to vow swift retaliation “to avenge each drop of blood” lost in the attacks.
Indian authorities said the strikes, launched in the early hours of May 7, targeted nine alleged terrorist camps inside Pakistan, two weeks after a deadly assault on Hindu tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, left 26 dead. New Delhi blames the attack on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba — an accusation Islamabad categorically denies.
The strikes have sparked a deadly exchange of artillery and air fire across the Line of Control (LoC), leaving at least 43 people dead: 31 civilians in Pakistan, according to its officials, and 12 in India due to Pakistani shelling.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a nationally televised address, accused India of "reckless aggression" and declared, “We will avenge our martyrs. Our blood is not cheap.”
Pakistan’s military claims to have downed five Indian fighter jets, while India acknowledged the loss of three aircraft within its own territory. Air and ground exchanges have continued, with UN observers visiting bombed civilian sites, including a mosque in Muzaffarabad and a government complex in Muridke. Four children were among the Pakistani casualties. In Indian-administered Kashmir, residents fled border villages amid heavy shelling. “There was panic everywhere,” said one villager, whose home was damaged.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh defended the strikes as “focused, measured, and within our right to respond.” But Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif countered that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seeking domestic political gains ahead of elections.
Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate are underway, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and US President Donald Trump urging both sides to exercise restraint. Iran has also stepped in, dispatching its foreign minister to both capitals in a bid to mediate.
As the crisis unfolds, concerns mount over the possibility of further retaliation. “Pakistan retains the right to respond at a time and place of its choosing,” said military spokesman Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, hinting at a potential second wave of responses.With both countries possessing nuclear weapons and a history of war over Kashmir, the global community watches anxiously — hopeful that cooler heads will prevail before the region slides into a broader conflict.
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