Pakistan Threatens to Respond After Indian Air Strikes Kill 26

India said no Pakistani military installations had been hit and that ‘considerable restraint’ had been used in the selection of targets.

Local residents stand outside a mosque of an Islamic seminary partially damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack, on the outskirts of Bahawalpur, Pakistan, on May 7, 2025. Asim Tanveer/AP

Pakistan says it reserves the right to respond “in self-defense, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing,” after India launched air strikes against several targets in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir killing 26 people.

India says the air strikes against nine sites were a direct response to an attack on April 22 by gunmen who killed 26 Indian tourists at Baisaran meadow, three miles from the resort town of Pahalgam, in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Earlier, in a statement, India’s Ministry of Defence said: “A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed.”

‘Imaginary Terrorist Camps’

But Pakistan’s National Security Committee, chaired by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said in a statement that the Indian air strikes were carried out “on the false pretext of the presence of imaginary terrorist camps.”

It claimed that civilian infrastructure, including mosques, had been deliberately targeted.

“These unprovoked and unjustified attacks martyred innocent men, women and children,” it said.

The committee said Pakistan’s armed forces had been authorized to take “corresponding actions” in response to what it said was a violation of its sovereignty.

Pakistan’s military spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif, said Indian missiles had hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the east of Pakistan’s Punjab province, killing at least 26 people, including women and children.

Later, Pakistan said five people had also been killed in Pakistani-administered Kashmir following artillery exchanges.

India claimed that at least seven civilians had been killed in the district of Poonch after Pakistan fired artillery across the Line of Control into Indian-administered Kashmir.

Earlier, India said nine sites had been targeted by the air strikes, but it insisted that its “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,” it said in a statement.

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on social media platform X, “Long live Mother India!”

Claims Indian Planes Shot Down

Sharif said Pakistan’s air force had shot down five Indian jets in retaliation.

Earlier, Pakistani Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar wrote in a post on X: “Three Indian jets and one Indian drone shot down by Pakistan. Pakistan has befittingly retaliated against Indian aggression. Pakistan Zindabad [Long Live Pakistan].”

Pakistan’s biggest-selling English-language newspaper, Dawn, said, “Confirmation of the fourth and fifth Indian jets being taken down came after 5 a.m. by Tarar and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.”

India has so far not confirmed the loss of any aircraft. The Epoch Times was unable to verify Pakistan’s claims.

Reports and photographs have emerged of aircraft wreckage near three villages in India-administered Kashmir.

Both countries are nuclear powers, and the prospect of a full-scale war in the region has led to concern from world leaders.

When asked about the air strikes by reporters at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump said: “It’s a shame. Just heard about it. I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time. They’ve been fighting for many, many decades. I hope it ends very quickly.”

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said he was very concerned.

“He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries. The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” Dujarric said.

China Urges ‘Restraint’

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said: “China opposes all forms of terrorism and calls on both India and Pakistan to prioritize peace and stability, remain calm and exercise restraint, and avoid actions that could further complicate the situation.

“We are willing to work with the international community to continue playing a constructive role in easing the current tensions.”

Beijing is the largest foreign investor in Pakistan, with a $65 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor project, which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

China has also had multiple border disputes with India, which have on occasion led to military clashes.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has postponed an official trip he was due to make during the week beginning May 12 to Norway, Croatia, and the Netherlands amid the tension with Pakistan.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement: “Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given.

“We will never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious objectives.”

Sharif became prime minister after his predecessor and political rival,Imran Khan, was ousted in 2022 and later convicted and jailed for corruption charges.

Pakistan has denied any connection to the April 22 attack by gunmen, for which an unknown group called the Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front, has claimed responsibility.

India has suggested that the group is an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist group that has in the past attacked the Indian military and police in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India administers the majority of Kashmir, but Pakistan administers the northern and western areas, and China controls territory in the east, some of which was ceded by Pakistan.

Operation Named in Honor of Widows

The Indian army said the military operation was named Sindoor—a Hindi word for the red vermilion powder worn by married Hindu women on their forehead and hair—in recognition of the women whose husbands were killed in front of them during the April 22 attack.

The Indian Ministry of Defence said in its statement about Operation Sindoor: “These steps come in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were murdered. We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable.”

Residents view debris of an aircraft in the compound of a mosque at Pampore in Pulwama district of Indian-administered Kashmir, on May 7, 2025. Dar Yasin/AP

On May 7, some airlines rerouted or canceled flights that would have passed through the conflict airspace.

Salman Khan, a businessman who was on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Lahore in Pakistan on the night of May 6, told The Epoch Times: “Around 12:30 a.m., more than halfway into the flight, the captain announced that Lahore had closed its airspace due to a security situation and the flight will need to turn to Karachi or back to Dubai.

“So he turned the plane around and we flew back to Dubai. Soon, we all realized why that happened.”

TJ Muscaro, Joseph Lord, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.