Pakistan

ISLAMABAD –  No fewer than 26 people have been killed and 46 others injured in Indian attacks on Pakistani targets, while three people were reportedly killed on the Indian side, the Pakistani military said.

India launched missile strikes from the air and surface on several areas of Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled parts of the disputed Kashmir region.

It said it was targeting the hideouts of militant groups behind a late April attack in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir in which at least 26 civilians were killed.

India’s Defence Ministry said in a statement in the early hours of Wednesday that at least nine sites were targeted in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir from “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.’’

The targets were “terrorist infrastructure,’’ the ministry said.

“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature.

“No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted,’’ it continued.

Islamabad called India’s actions an unprovoked and blatant act of war and a “flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, and established norms of inter-state relations.’’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan had every right to give a befitting reply to this act of war imposed by India and a befitting reply is being given.

Sharif was on Wednesday meeting his security Cabinet, including the military and intelligence chiefs to discuss the situation that had brough the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink, his office said.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar meanwhile said Pakistani missiles had shot down five Indian fighter jets.

Pakistani military sources told dpa they it had started targeting military infrastructure on the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir.

India also reported casualties: Local media cited the army as saying that at least three civilians were killed in Pakistani shelling in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.

The Pakistani military fired indiscriminately across the line of control, the de facto frontier dividing Kashmir into two parts, media reports quoted the Indian military sources as saying.

The reports cited the Indian Army as saying it would respond to the shelling “in a proportionate manner.’’

Bahawalpur, one of the areas of Pakistan targeted by India, is said to be the town where the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed).

This was accused by New Delhi of being behind several deadly cross-border attacks, was based.

A small town near the eastern city of Lahore was also hit.

Another anti-India militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), is allegedly based there.

India’s strikes also targeted the city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and a small town called Kotli in the same region, the military said.

Pakistan on Wednesday reopened its airspace for commercial planes and restored flights operations from all international airports after a brief closure in the wake of Indian missile strikes, an official said.

U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, spoke to both Pakistani and Indian national security advisers overnight in efforts aimed at de-escalation in the region.

China, a major power in the region and a close political ally of Pakistan, also called for de-escalation, joining calls by several Gulf Arab states and the United Nations.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have escalated since April 22, when at least 26 people were killed in a militant attack on a group of tourists in the town of Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir.

New Delhi pointed the finger at Islamabad, accusing it of supporting the militants. Pakistan denied having any role and offered to hold an independent investigation.

The South Asian nations had fought three wars since their independence in 1947 and pulled back from the brink of a fourth one over contested Kashmir.

A picturesque Himalayan valley divided in parts mostly between the two countries, with China also controlling two smaller parts of it. India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in its entirety. (dpa/NAN)