At least seven people, including two children, have been killed and 35 injured after India launched attacks on what it claimed were nine sites of “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir, in a sharp escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Loud explosions were heard early on Wednesday, and power was knocked out in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, witnesses said.
In response, Pakistani military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said at least two Indian air force jets had been shot down, calling India’s strikes a “heinous provocation”. No further detail was immediately available.
Residents in the Kupwara district of Indian-administered Kashmir reported exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops on the line of control.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said : “Pakistan has every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India, and a forceful response is being given.”
“The Pakistani nation and the Pakistan armed forces know very well how to deal with the enemy,” he said. “We will never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious objectives.” He was to hold a meeting of the national security committee on Wednesday morning.
The strikes came just hours after India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said that water flowing across India’s borders would be stopped. Pakistan has warned that tampering with the rivers flowing into its territory would be an “act of war”.
