Pakistan vowed to retaliate after India launched air strikes against its neighbour over last month’s deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
After a national security meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday, the Pakistani government said it had authorised the armed forces to take measures “corresponding” to the country’s “self-defence, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing”.
In an evening address to the nation, prime minister Shehbaz Sharif promised to “avenge every drop of blood” of the more than two dozen Pakistanis his government says were killed by the Indian air strikes.
As Pakistan accused its neighbour of igniting “an inferno in the region”, other powers urged restraint on both sides.
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India said it had carried out “precision strikes” on nine “terrorist camps” in Pakistan and the part of the disputed region of Kashmir that Pakistan administers. The assault appeared to be India’s most extensive military attack on its neighbour in decades, with Pakistan claiming 26 people had been killed.
Islamabad said it had shot down five Indian military jets and a combat drone in response and warned of further retaliation that could bring the two countries into open conflict.
Classifying the strikes as an “act of war”, it added that “the responsibility for ensuing consequences shall lie squarely with India”.
“You can appreciate the pressure that we are under,” Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s finance minister, told the Financial Times. “The reality is ... two nuclear-armed nations, simply no one can afford to go in a direction where escalation takes us into uncharted territory.”
As tensions increased, India carried out mock drills, simulating scenarios such as air raids, rescue operations and fire emergencies at locations across the country. The drills, which were ordered on Tuesday, are the first nationwide such measures since India’s 1971 war with Pakistan.
Political parties in both countries have expressed their support for their respective militaries. India’s opposition Congress party hailed the air strikes as a “befitting reply” to Islamabad, while Pakistani opposition parties denounced New Delhi’s “cowardly” attacks.
[ Explainer: what we know so far about the India-Pakistan crisisOpens in new window ]
Long-standing frictions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, which both claim Kashmir, intensified after gunmen killed 25 Indians and a Nepali citizen in Pahalgam, a tourist hub in Indian-administered Kashmir, on April 22nd.
India said on Wednesday that it had attacked Pakistan to bring the planners of the Pahalgam attack to justice and because it had evidence that further attacks were pending.
“There was thus a compulsion both to deter and pre-empt,” said Vikram Misri, foreign secretary.
Vyomika Singh, an air force commander, said that India acted with “clinical efficiency” and used “niche technology weapons with careful selection to ensure there was no collateral damage”, in an operation that lasted less than half an hour.
Rajnath Singh, India’s defence minister, said New Delhi had shown “sensitivity” in not allowing “any civilian population to be affected at all”.
[ India-Pakistan crisis: Varadkar and Yousaf urge leaders to ‘exercise restraint’Opens in new window ]
However, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Pakistan’s military spokesperson, told reporters 26 Pakistanis had died, and 46 others were injured. The dead included two three-year-old girls and seven women, he added.
Mr Chaudhry said India targeted mosques in at least three different locations, killing people inside the houses of worship.
The Financial Times could not independently verify the two countries’ claims.
India called Wednesday’s attack on Pakistan “Operation Sindoor”, a reference to the red mark Hindu women wear in their hair parting, the traditional Hindu symbol of marriage.
A picture of a honeymooning couple attacked in Pahalgam, with the wife kneeling by the body of her husband, was widely shared in India after the attack.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack in Kashmir and has called for an independent investigation.
Pakistani military and diplomatic officials told the Financial Times they had shot down five Indian fighter jets on Wednesday, including three French-made Rafales and two Russian-made planes.
They claimed the aircraft had attempted to fire at Pakistan from Indian airspace. New Delhi did not immediately confirm Islamabad’s claims.
Relations between India and Pakistan have soured sharply since the Pahalgam attack, with New Delhi suspending a treaty under which it shares water with Islamabad in the Indus river basin, and the two countries halting trade and shutting their land border.
Pakistan shut schools in the part of Kashmir it administers, in the capital Islamabad, and throughout Punjab.
“There will be retaliation of some kind by Pakistan in the coming hours,” said C Raja Mohan, an Indian international affairs analyst. “In the meantime, there is diplomacy going on behind the scenes and the US will be involved at some level.”
Washington, which has close ties with both India and Pakistan, has urged restraint. US president Donald Trump called the strikes “a shame” and said he hoped the conflict “ends very soon”.
[ Timeline: India-Pakistan clashes are worst between two neighbours in decadesOpens in new window ]
Last week, US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke to senior officials from India and Pakistan, urging them to “de-escalate tensions”.
China, which borders both countries, said India’s military operation was “regrettable” and called on both sides to de-escalate tensions.
Russia said it was “deeply concerned by the heightened military tensions between India and Pakistan”. Moscow is the largest military supplier to New Delhi, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The exchange of hostilities in the region prompted multiple airlines to reroute and cancel flights that were due to land in or fly over the south Asian countries on Wednesday.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
