US President announced that had ceasefire agreement had been reached between India and Pakistan over social media after India’s attack on parts of Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site will take place.
India attacked Pakistan killing at least 31 people across Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, including a 3-year-old girl, and wounded 46 others. A senior Indian defense source said at least 16 civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir in retaliation.
New Delhi said the strikes are in response to the massacre of 26 people – mostly Indian tourists – who were killed in April when gunmen stormed a scenic mountain spot in the India-administered part of Kashmir, a long-disputed border region. India blamed Pakistan for the shooting, which Pakistan has denied. Drone strikes from the Indian side are ongoing say Pakistani security officials, who claim to have downed dozens of Israeli-made drones.
India, meanwhile, claimed that Pakistan targeted military installations in India-administered Kashmir and Punjab with missile and drone strikes, which Pakistan has also denied.
India launched “Operation Sindoor” in both Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Indian officials claimed no Pakistani civilian, economic or military sites were struck in the 25-minute operation, which targeted two militant groups – Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Pakistan claims civilians were killed and mosques were hit across six locations. Some of those strikes hit the densely populated province of Punjab, Pakistan’s military said, and were the deepest India has struck inside Pakistan since one of their wars in 1971.
New Delhi also confirmed it targeted air defense systems in several locations in Pakistan. The government announcement marked the first time India confirmed its attacks on Pakistani military installations. India warned its latest response came after Pakistan tried to attack military targets in northern and western India.
Pakistani security sources claimed they had shot down five Indian Air Force jets and one drone ear – including three Rafales, sophisticated French-made jets that New Delhi only acquired a few years ago.
Pakistan’s information ministry claimed that Pakistani forces killed between 40 and 50 Indian soldiers along the de-facto border with Indian-administered Kashmir.
One senior Pakistani security source said 125 jets fought for over an hour, staying in their own airspaces and firing missiles from afar, while Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said they had blown the five Indian jets to “smithereens.”
Pakistan said it had downed 29 loitering munitions across the country, which are Israeli-made flying bombs guided by an operator. One of the drones was able to “partially” engage its target near Lahore – a city of around 13 million people near the border with India – wounding four army personnel, according to Pakistan Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry. The military official described India’s latest drone strikes as “a serious provocation.” “The security of the region and beyond is at risk,” added Chaudhry.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chair and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardarisaid peace in South Asia will remain “but a dream” unless India and Pakistan resolve the issue of Kashmir.
“This [Kashmir] is a disputed territory. This is a dispute that India took to the United Nations. And until we get to the root cause, until we find a solution to the Kashmir question, until then I believe that peace in South Asia will be but a dream,” the PPP leader said. He said Pakistan had called for a credible, international probe into the Pahalgam attack. He rejected India had leveled unfounded allegations “without any supporting evidence.”