Kashmir crisis live: Pakistan and India accuse each other of striking military bases in major escalation

Full story: Pakistan and India accuse each other of striking military bases

Hannah Ellis-Petersen

India and Pakistan have accused each other of cross-border missile strikes against major military targets, the most significant escalation so far in the brewing conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

On Saturday, India accused Pakistan of launching strikes on dozens of airbases and military headquarters across north India, using long-range weapons, drones and fighter aircraft. The accusations came a few hours after Pakistan said India had fired six surface-to-air missiles targeting three of Pakistan’s most important military bases early on Saturday morning.

Shortly afterwards, Pakistan officials confirmed they had begun their counter-attack against India, under the name Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos, a phrase from the Qur’an roughly translating to “wall of lead”.

Read the Guardian’s latest report on the intensifying cross-border conflict between India and Pakistan at the link below.

Key events

India’s High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami has told the BBC that India initially only targeted a “terrorist” base in Pakistan in response to the militant attack on Indian tourists in Pahalgam last month.

Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar earlier said India was the aggressor in the conflict, and Pakistan had a right to respond.

Doraiswami accused Tarar of lying, and claimed Pakistan has for decades maintained “terrorist infrastructure” inside its borders.

Here are some of the latest pictures coming out of India and Pakistan after tensions ratcheted up once more as each side launched strikes on the other overnight.

A Kashmiri villager examines damage to his house caused by overnight shelling, in Shah Kot, Neelum Vallery, a district of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Photograph: MD Mughal/AP

A civic worker helps remove debris of a residential building in Jammu that was damaged from an aerial attack by Pakistan. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images

An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard on the banks of Dal Lake, Srinagar, after loud explosions were heard in the area of Indian controlled Kashmir. Photograph: Mukhtar Khan/AP

AFP has spoken to analysts who played up the role international mediators will need to play in de-escalating the conflict between India and Pakistan.

With the death toll on both sides now over 60, “civilian casualties changes the entire situation and puts both governments under tremendous public pressure,” said Praveen Donthi, senior India analyst for the International Crisis Group.

“Both powers on their own are not going to de-escalate.”

“In this case, emotions and mistrust are so high that international mediation will be of the essence,” said Michael Kugelman, a Washington DC-based South Asia analyst. “There’s still no clear path to an off ramp.”

There have been global calls for restraint but analysts agreed that actual mediation from the US, UK or Arab Gulf states was urgent.

The last conflict in 2019 – in and around Kashmir and away from populated areas – ended with both sides claiming victory after mediation from the United States.

“But what we’re seeing now is unprecedented. We have not seen these types of attacks before – missiles, drones, planes sent over populated cities,” said Basit.

“It’s a new playbook,” said Basit, with mediators needed to “help with the victory narrative for both sides” in order to de-escalate.

Pakistan’s defence minister says it’s still ‘premature’ to give statement on de-escalation

Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif said that it was still “premature” to give any statements on de-escalation, the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Peterson reports.

“Things are in pipeline and contacts have been established.” Asif said. “There is no conclusive statement to be given yet. But I can confirm that the US and Saudi Arabia are playing a crucial role as interlocutors. Secretary of state made a call today to Pakistan’s military chief and the Saudi state minister for foreign minister is in the town.”

He added: “We can’t trust Indians for talks and de-escalation. If interlocutors and our common friends and credible countries such as Saudi Arabia and the US step in and play a crucial role, we have no issue to de-escalate. We did not start it. We just responded to the Indian military aggression.”

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy has joined G7 ministers in calling for an “immediate de-escalation” between India and Pakistan, PA reports.

A statement said: “We, the G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the high representative of the European Union, strongly condemn the egregious terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22 and urge maximum restraint from both India and Pakistan.

“Further military escalation poses a serious threat to regional stability. We are deeply concerned for the safety of civilians on both sides.

“We call for immediate de-escalation and encourage both countries to engage in direct dialogue towards a peaceful outcome. We continue to monitor events closely and express our support for a swift and lasting diplomatic resolution.”

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is holding a meeting with top security officials at his residence following the escalation in tensions with Pakistan, AP reports.

Defense minister Rajnath Singh, national security advisor Ajit Doval and the chiefs of the army, navy and air force are present.

Modi’s office released a video of the meeting in which he is seen talking to the officials.

Are we heading for another world war – or has it already started?

Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, argues that the implosion of Pax Americana, the interconnectedness of conflicts, the new willingness to resort to unbridled state-sponsored violence and the irrelevance of the institutions of the rules-based order have all been on brutal display this week as conflict between India and Pakistan intensified.

In Kashmir, where two nuclear-armed states are firing rockets at one another’s aircraft, there is a conspicuous absence of American interest. The US has no ambassador in India or Pakistan and no senior state department official appointed. The conflict is not making waves in US media, and Trump’s initial response was “it’s a shame” and that “if you think about it they have been fighting for many, many decades, and centuries, actually”.

In previous disputes between India and Pakistan it took a decisive US intervention to help calm both sides. In July 1999 in Washington, Bill Clinton personally browbeat Pakistan’s then leader, Nawaz Sharif, into retreat in what one official called the most important meeting with a foreign leader of Clinton’s presidency.

The former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo revealed in his memoir how close the two sides came in February 2019 to a nuclear conflagration, something he frantically helped stop from a secure hotel room on a visit to Hanoi. Unnervingly, India is no longer framing the issue as terrorism but as a state-on-state dispute by saying the underlying issue is Pakistan acting as a shield for terrorism.

China has said it is “deeply concerned about the escalation” of tensions between India and Pakistan and is willing to “continue to play a constructive role” in finding a solution, AP reports.

China’s foreign ministry said: “We strongly urge both sides to act in the larger interest of peace and stability, exercise calm and restraint, return to the track of political settlement through peaceful means, and refrain from any action that could further escalate tension.”

China is a strong ally of Pakistan, especially in the defence sector where they have jointly developed fighter aircraft.

AP has reported from Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which was rattled by multiple loud explosions earlier today.

Most shops and businesses were open, but traffic was thin on the roads. Government forces, wearing body armour and carrying automatic rifles, erected additional checkpoints on the main road leading to the city’s airport, a part of which also serves as an Indian air force station.

Many residents living close to the airport fled from their neighborhoods in fear of attacks. The Indian military said it was among three air bases that came under Pakistani attack early Saturday.

Local resident Munir Ahmed along with his family fled from their home as they didn’t feel safe, he said. “We did not want to take any chances as my daughter is in her late pregnancy,” Ahmed said.

Authorities have already closed schools and other educational institutions across the region until Tuesday.

Most shops and businesses were shut in the region’s Jammu city, which witnessed Pakistan’s Saturday strike and drone attacks for the past two nights. Anxious residents said police drove through some neighborhoods and asked shopkeepers to close businesses and stay indoors as a precautionary measure.

At least 13 civilians killed in Pakistani Kashmir in last 12 hours – disaster authority

At least 13 civilians were killed in Pakistani Kashmir in the 12 hours to noon on Saturday, the region’s disaster authority said, as India and Pakistan traded fire after Islamabad’s military action against India in the early hours of the day. It is currently just past 2pm in Kashmir.

More than 50 people were also injured in the region, the authority said.

India has shut more airports along its northern and western regions following the flare up in tensions with Pakistan, AP reports.

The India’s Civil Aviation Ministry in a statement said the operation of civil flights will remain suspended from 32 airports until 15 May. It had previously announced flights from two dozen airports would be suspended.

The latest airports to be shut are mainly located in the northern states of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and the western state of Gujarat, bordering Pakistan.

Full story: Pakistan and India accuse each other of striking military bases

Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Read the Guardian’s latest report on the intensifying cross-border conflict between India and Pakistan at the link below.

Pakistan’s prime minister says country has given its response

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif told the country’s political leaders in separate calls that “we have given India a befitting response and avenged the blood of our innocent citizens” following what he said were repeated Indian strikes on civilians, AP reports.

India has denied hitting civilian targets.

In a statement, his office said Sharif said Pakistan had shown “extreme restraint” in the face of Indian provocations.

He said Pakistan responded after India’s overnight missile attacks at air bases and other places. Pakistan’s retaliatory military operation against India, under the name Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos, translating from the Arabic as “wall of lead”, targeted multiple bases including a missile storage site in northern India.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry quoted Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, as saying he “appreciated Pakistan’s measured and restrained response” to India in a phone call to his counterpart.

In a statement, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Ishaq Dar informed Farhan about the situation in the region following last night’s Indian attacks and Pakistan’s subsequent response. “Both leaders agreed to maintain close contact,” it said.

Saudi Arabia has in recent years tried to position itself as a mediator in conflicts including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Two loud blasts were heard in Indian’s Kashmir’s summer capital of Srinagar on Saturday, near the city airport and the local headquarters of the army, according to an official, a Reuters witness, and local residents.

Two blasts were also heard in Kashmir’s Baramulla town, an official and residents told Reuters, as fighting continued between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s defence minister has played down the likelihood of nuclear weapons being used. He earlier denied that the main body in charge of command and control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, the National Command Authority, had no plans to meet after reports that it had convened a meeting.

Defence minister Khawaja Asif told ARY TV: “This thing that you have spoken about (nuclear option) is present, but let’s not talk about it – we should treat it as a very distant possibility, we shouldn’t even discuss it in the immediate context.”

“Before we get to that point, I think temperatures will come down. No meeting has happened of the National Command Authority, nor is any such meeting scheduled.”

What we know so far

If you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of where things stand after Pakistan said it carried out retaliatory strikes in response to India targeting its military bases with missiles in a sharp escalation of the conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The Pakistani military said India fired six missiles targeting Nur Khan, Murid and Shorkot – three of Pakistan’s most important military bases – early on Saturday morning. It said most were intercepted by Pakistani air defences.
Pakistan later launched a retaliatory military operation against India, its military said, under the name Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos, translating from the Arabic as “wall of lead”. It targeted multiple bases including a missile storage site in northern India.
Pakistan military officials said the Pathankot military airfield in Punjab and Udhampur air force base in Indian-administered Kashmir were among the targets, with loud explosions heard from both.
Among India’s targets was Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi, where the Pakistani military has its headquarters, which is about 10km from Islamabad. The strikes caused panic in the densely populated area. Pakistan later shut its air space for 24 hours.
India’s strikes and Pakistan’s counterattack brings the two countries the closest they have been to war in decades.

Pakistani security personnel cordon off a road near Nur Khan military airbase after Indian strikes in Rawalpindi early on Saturday. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

But India and Pakistan both said on Saturday they would not escalate hostilities if the other reciprocated. US secretary of state Marco Rubio urged both countries’ foreign ministers to find ways to “de-escalate and re-establish direct communication to avoid miscalculation”. The G7 called for “maximum restraint”, saying “further military escalation poses a serious threat to regional stability”.
The two countries have engaged in daily clashes since Wednesday, when India launched strikes inside Pakistan on what it called militant bases. At least 48 people have been killed since Wednesday, according to casualty estimates on both sides of the border that have not been independently verified.
The flare-up comes after an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month, killing 26 civilians. India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants behind the attack.
India’s military said on Saturday it had begun large-scale mobilisation of additional forces to the border, including activating its reserve territorial army, in case the conflict escalated further.

More here on the US secretary of state’s calls to top Indian and Pakistani diplomats amid the flaring conflict – just days after US vice-president JD Vance was reported as saying the US would not intervene and the fighting between the two countries was “fundamentally none of our business”.

Marco Rubio urged India and Pakistan to restore direct communication to “avoid miscalculation” in a series of calls, the state department said early on Saturday.

Rubio placed telephone calls to the rivals’ foreign ministers and, for the first known time since the conflict erupted, also spoke with Pakistan’s army chief, Col Asim Munir. considered the country’s key powerbroker, Agence France-Presse reports.

Stepped-up diplomacy: US secretary of state Marco Rubio. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

In the separate calls with the top diplomats, Rubio “emphasised that both sides need to identify methods to de-escalate and re-establish direct communication to avoid miscalculation”, state department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

In the conversations with both foreign ministers and Asim Munir, Rubio also “offered US assistance in starting constructive talks in order to avoid future conflicts”, Bruce said.

The stepped-up diplomacy came as the conflict intensified between the nuclear-armed neighbours, with Pakistan launching counterattacks after India struck three of its air bases, according to officials.