India launched military strikes on targets in Pakistan, both countries said on Wednesday and Pakistan claimed it had shot down five Indian Air Force jets, in an escalation that has pushed the two nations to the brink of wider conflict.
After much speculation about fighter jet losses, an image has now emerged online showing the vertical tail of an Indian Rafale allegedly shot down by the Pakistani AMRAAM. As we mentioned in our previous report about the ongoing clashes between India and Pakistan, the latter claimed it shot down five aircraft of the former, including three Rafales.
India’s missile strikes early Wednesday morning targeted “terrorist infrastructure” across nine sites in Pakistan’s densely populated Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, it said. They came in response to a massacre by militants of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago, that New Delhi blamed on its neighbor.
Pakistan said at least 26 people were killed in Wednesday’s strikes – including women and a three-year-old girl – and 46 wounded. The country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the strikes as “an act of war” and Islamabad has vowed to retaliate.
From early Wednesday the two sides have exchanged shelling across their border, with locals on both sides telling NYT they were taking shelter. A NYT journalist in Pakistan-administered Kashmir heard multiple loud explosions.
“A shell landed at a house close to the mosque in which two people were injured. Shells also hit other houses in our area and we fled from our area to a safer place,” said Shakeel Butt, a resident of Muzaffarabad, in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. A senior Indian defense source said at least eight people had been killed on the Indian side of the border.
Pakistani military sources later said they shot down five Indian Air Force jets and one drone in “self-defence,” claiming three Rafale jets – sophisticated multi-role fighters made in France – were among those downed as well as a Mig-29 and an SU-30 fighter.
Photos published by AFP news agency showed aircraft wreckage lying in a field next to a red-brick building. But it was not immediately clear from the pictures of the wreckage who the aircraft belonged to.
Indian jets have previously bombed Pakistani territory following militant attacks on its soil but Wednesday’s operation is the deepest India has struck inside its neighbor since the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, the biggest of several wars between the two countries.
The situation is now “obviously serious and fluid,” said Fahd Humayun, an assistant professor of political science at Tufts University. “Retaliation to India’s actions will likely now be inevitable.”
India dubbed its military action “Operation Sindoor” – a reference to the red vermilion, or powder, many Hindu women wear on their foreheads after marriage. It is a symbolic nod to April’s massacre on civilians that left several women widowed.
World leaders and the United Nations have expressed concern over the strikes and have urged restraint from both countries. The US Department of State said it was “closely monitoring” the flare-up.
India said its strikes were “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,” its defense ministry said in a statement.
The strikes have put the region on alert, with commercial airlines keeping almost entirely clear of Pakistani airspace, flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed. The airport in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir’s biggest city, has been closed to civilian traffic, and several airlines have suspended or diverted flights to Pakistan and northwest India.
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