In the early hours of Wednesday, a deafening boom shook Safeer Awan from his sleep.
The lawyer, who lives in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, rushed to check on his children as a barrage of rockets crashed into the Bilal mosque next door. The blast shattered windows, sending shards of glass flying and injuring his 16-year-old daughter Nimrah, who was taken to hospital.
“It was terrifying,” said Awan.
India undertook its most extensive strikes on its nuclear-armed neighbour in more than 50 years on Wednesday, claiming it hit six sites in Pakistan that were involved in cross-border terrorism. The strikes were retaliation for a massacre on April 22nd of 26 people, all but one of them tourists, in India-administered Kashmir.
India’s armed forces said they also targeted multiple “terrorist camps” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and some deep inside the international boundary that separates India and Pakistan.
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Rajnath Singh, India’s defence minister, said India “has used its ‘right to respond’ to the attack on its soil”, and had used “precision, precaution and compassion to destroy the camps used to train terrorists in Pakistan”. He claimed that no civilians were harmed.
Pakistan, which denies sponsoring terrorism against India, said 31 people were killed and 57 injured in Wednesday’s assault, including women and children. Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to “avenge every drop of blood”.
Strikes by Pakistan on the Indian side of the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, killed 13 civilians and injured 59, Indian officials said on Thursday.
In Muzaffarabad, half a dozen Indian missiles reduced much of the mosque to rubble, killing two Muslim religious leaders and a groundskeeper, local officials told the Financial Times on a visit organised by the Pakistan Armed Forces. Indian officials had alleged the mosque was a jihadist-linked facility.
“They’re killing people in a neighbourhood with families and children,” said Raja Nawaz, an elderly relative of Awan. “What do we do to stop it?”
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Kashmir, a contested region of verdant hills and rushing rivers, has long been an unresolved source of conflict between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim Kashmir as their territory and each controls a part of it.
In the 1980s, Pakistan-administered Kashmir became a base for insurgents backed by Islamabad to cross the porous Line of Control. Mosques and madrassas doubled as recruitment and training centres for militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which perpetrated the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, analysts said.
Both groups, which India, the US and UN have designated as terrorist organisations, are officially banned in Pakistan. New Delhi however alleges that they continue to receive protection in Pakistani territory and has linked Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was arrested by Pakistan in 2019, to the April 22nd attack. Pakistan denies any connection to the groups.
Zahid Hussain, an Islamabad-based political analyst, said Pakistan began to scale back its support for jihadist groups in Kashmir about a decade ago after the country was added to the international Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list” tackling money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Pakistan ... desperately wanted off the [grey list]” to create a more attractive environment for foreign investment, he said. “The groups also brought Pakistan to blows with India.”
[ India-Pakistan conflict has potential for serious escalationOpens in new window ]
Muzaffarabad, where locals recalled Pakistani security forces raiding “offices” of the militant groups, has often been spared the brunt of the violence. But towns straddling the mountainous border with India have long faced repeated bouts of tit-for-tat gunfire and artillery shelling.
Soldiers stationed on both sides have exchanged volleys in recent weeks, according to Indian and Pakistani officials.
The Bilal mosque, located halfway up a hill outside central Muzaffarabad, offered Quranic lessons to roughly three dozen children, though they were not present during Wednesday’s blasts, according to locals.
“There were offices for these groups here, maybe 100 metres from the mosque, but that was 10 or 15 years ago,” said Sajid Saroon, who lives nearby. “I haven’t seen jihadi here since.” The Financial Times could not independently verify Indian or Pakistani claims about activities at the mosque.
For now, India’s assault has created a groundswell of support on Muzaffarabad’s streets for Pakistan’s army to push back, locals say. Street protesters gathered in the city on Thursday to condemn “Indian aggression” and call for a response from Islamabad.
“I stand with our military and what they need to do in response,” said Awan.
But many residents, who asked not to be named due to the heavy security presence, expressed fears that political freedoms already under severe pressure in the region could be curtailed further.
Just months ago, a general strike loomed over a since-shelved presidential ordinance that would have curbed freedom of assembly. Six days of protests, sit-ins and shut downs a year ago over spiralling food and energy costs prompted Sharif’s government to offer a hefty subsidy to the region’s four million residents.
Raja Manzir, an 18-year-old student from the Neelum border valley studying in Muzaffarabad, lacked confidence in any kind of resolution. “The leaders of our country and their country are always up to something,” he said. “But I am scared of what will come next.”
While Awan was anxiously awaiting updates on his daughter’s medical condition, he dismissed the notion of moving his family away from the region.
“We shouldn’t be part of this. We aren’t terrorists,” Awan said. “We will stay here. India, please stay away.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
