BREAKING: India launches airstrikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir | BBC News
We start tonight with a breaking story that India has launched an attack on Pakistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir and Jammu. Relations between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers have long been tense but deteriorated sharply following a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir last month. Pakistan is vowing to retaliate at a time and place of its choosing. It looks like that may be underway. Our international editor Jeremy Bone is here and Jeremy this news has just come in. So what more can you tell us? Fill us in. Well, there are a few things to think about here tonight. First of all, the question is is whether India will decide that their honor has been satisfied after that attack. And then the question will be what about the Pakistani response? There’s been uh news reports coming out the Pakistanis saying their jets are in the sky at the moment. So the the nature of their response to this and any escalation that results is clearly going to be something that people are deeply worried about because both of these countries with a long tradition of emnity uh have nuclear weapons. Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. This at the moment is a response to an attack uh which India is blaming on Pakistan on militant groups that are based there and they have hit nine places with various kinds of u um missiles that they’ve got and they have been hinting that something like this will happen. It’s been on the card. So let’s hope thath internationally people are ready to try and calm the situation down to make sure it doesn’t go any further than it needs to get because India and Pakistan have a long history of tension between them and over the disputed area of Kashmir which has been disputed since the partition of uh of India uh just after the second world war. Well, as you say, Jeremy, this has been on the cards for some time. Relations have been extremely tense between the two countries for a number of years. Yeah, they have been tense. And so that’s why this is something that you we’ve got to be concerned about. But also, I think the first of all, both sides will know what the stakes are here. So, as I say, really important for everybody looking at this, people who might be worried about it, people who might have family out there, people who are concerned about what may happen. and journalists must not get ahead of themselves at the moment about this. Now, it’s obviously it’s breaking news in the world, but it’s something that now there has to be a major diplomatic push to stop it escalating, to calm things down, for both sides to say, “Right, honor has been satisfied. Now we can draw a line.” Jeremy, thank you very much. Well, we can now go live to Samir Hussein uh reporting from India for us. Samir, what can you tell us? Well, look, so far the only details that we’re getting here in India are actually from the Indian government and not the army. And what they’re saying is that they have hit nine targets in Pakistan. They’re saying that these targets were in fact militant targets. They are saying that they did not target the Pakistan military. And they’re saying that right now actually you’re seeing some we’re getting some reports of artillery shelling happening between the two countries at some points along the line of control. And now really what’s going to happen is everyone’s looking towards Pakistan in terms of what kind of retaliation we may see. Now remember it’s been 12 days since that attack that happened targeting all these tourists and many people have been wondering about what was going to happen between India and Pakistan. Remember along this line of control there has been quite a few um quite a long ceasefire that has clearly been breached and so now there’s a real concern in terms of what Pakistan’s response may be to what’s just happened in New Delhi. Thank you very much for joining us.
The Indian government says its forces have launched “Operation Sindoor”, “hitting terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed”.
In a statement, the Indian government says “nine sites have been targeted… Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”
The statement said the attack was ordered after last month’s deadly militant attack on tourists in India-administered Kashmir.
Explosions have been reported in several places in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with reports of power cuts in the city of Muzaffarabad.
The head of Pakistan’s military public relations wing confirmed that three areas have been hit by Indian missiles, Muzaffarabad and Kotli in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Bahwalpur.
Relations between India and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply following a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir last month.
Pakistan’s said it would “respond to this [attack] at a time and place of its choosing… All of our air force jets are airborne. This is a shameful and cowardly attack that was carried out from within India’s airspace.”
Fiona Bruce presents BBC News at Ten reporting by international editor Jeremy Bowen and Samira Hussain in New Delhi.
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