India and Pakistan are facing their most direct military confrontation since 2019 after Indian warplanes carried out deadly strikes inside Pakistan on Wednesday. Islamabad claims to have downed five Indian fighter jets in response, including French-made Rafales, and released footage of smoke rising from what it said was one of the crash sites. The Indian government has yet to respond to those claims, which could not be independently verified.
India said its strikes did not target Pakistani military sites but were in retaliation for last month’s militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that left 26 dead, including 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen. The attack occurred in Pahalgam, a tourist destination, and was the deadliest against Indian civilians since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. India has linked the assault to Pakistan, a claim Islamabad denies.
Pakistani officials reported at least 21 civilians killed in the Indian strikes, including two children. Sixteen of the deaths occurred in Punjab province, Pakistan’s most populous and politically significant region. It was the first Indian strike on Punjab in over 50 years and far exceeded the scale of the 2019 Balakot strike, when India hit a single remote target.
In a statement, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the country was not currently in contact with India but warned that Pakistan would continue to respond as long as it was under attack. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif authorized the military to take “corresponding actions,” though in a later address to parliament he said Pakistan had delivered a “tit-for-tat” response — leaving it unclear if further action is expected.
Pakistan reported 24 Indian strike impacts across six locations: three in Punjab province — Ahmedpur East, Muridke, and Sialkot — and three in Pakistani-administered Kashmir — Kotli, Bagh, and Muzaffarabad. Pakistani officials also said India damaged a hydroelectric power plant in the Kashmir region, though it was unclear whether this was caused by airstrikes.
Cross-border shelling also intensified. In the Indian town of Poonch, at least 12 people were killed, according to local officials. Pakistan reported five civilians killed along the Line of Control.
India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the airstrikes targeted locations used to plan and direct attacks on India. He also accused the Resistance Front, an alleged offshoot of the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, of carrying out the April 22 attack. He cited social media posts as partial evidence, though the Resistance Front has denied involvement and The Washington Post could not verify the claims.
The two nuclear-armed nations had maintained a fragile ceasefire since 2021. That truce now appears to be collapsing under the weight of renewed violence.
