India said no Pakistani military installations had been hit and that ‘considerable restraint’ had been used in the selection of targets.
Pakistan says it reserves the right to respond “in self-defense, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing,” after India launched air strikes against several targets in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, and Pakistan, killing 26 people.
India says the air strikes against nine sites were a direct response to an attack on April 22 by gunmen who killed 26 Indian tourists at Baisaran meadow, three miles from the resort town of Pahalgam, in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Earlier, in a statement, India’s Ministry of Defence said: “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.”
‘Imaginary Terrorist Camps’
But Pakistan’s National Security Committee, chaired by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said in a statement that the Indian air strikes were carried out “on the false pretext of the presence of imaginary terrorist camps.”
Pakistan’s military spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif, said Indian missiles had hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the east of Pakistan’s Punjab province, killing at least 26 people, including women and children.
Later, Pakistan said five people had also been killed in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir following artillery exchanges.
India claimed that at least seven civilians had been killed in the district of Poonch after Pakistan fired artillery across the Line of Control into Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Earlier, India said nine sites had been targeted by the air strikes, but it insisted its “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 in a statement.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on X, “Long live Mother India!”
