India launches missile strikes on ‘terrorist camps’ in Pakistan – as Pakistan vows to respond
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India has fired missiles across the border into Pakistani-controlled territory, Pakistani security officials have said.
Locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province were hit, according to officials.
At least three areas were targeted and one of the missiles struck a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, where a child was killed, and a woman and man were injured, it was reported.
The Indian defence ministry said it had launched Operation Sindoor as it struck “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed”.
It said a total of nine sites were targeted.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been escalating following a militant gun attack in the disputed area of Kashmir last month.
A Pakistan military spokesman said the country will respond to the attacks which happened early on Wednesday local time.
Multiple loud explosions were heard in several places in Pakistan and in the mountains around the city of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
After the blasts, power was blacked out in Muzaffarabad, witnesses said.
A person injured in the missile attack is treated in hospital in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Pic: AP
India carried out this “cowardly assault under the cover of night”, deliberately targeting innocent Pakistani civilians, said security officials.
At least 26 people, most of whom were Indian tourists, were shot dead by gunmen at a beauty spot near the resort town of Pahalgam in the Indian-controlled part of the region on 22 April.
India described the massacre as a “terror attack” and said it had “cross border” links, blaming Pakistan for backing it.
Pakistan denied any connection to the atrocity, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group called the Kashmir Resistance.
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24 April: Pakistani minister warns ‘all-out war’ possible
Since the attack, Pakistan’s military has been on high alert after a cabinet minister said Islamabad had credible intelligence indicating that India could attack.
And Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif told Sky News’ The World With Yalda Hakim that the world should be “worried” about the prospect of a full-scale conflict involving the two nations.
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