During the early hours of Wednesday, India launched airstrikes targeting nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least eight people, with Islamabad claiming as many as 26 may have died. In a press release issued overnight, the Indian government said the strikes were aimed at ‘terrorist infrastructure’ in response to the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam town of Indian administered Kashmir. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for the terrorist attack, while Islamabad denies being involved.
In a press briefing, officials from the Indian defence and external affairs ministries said last night’s strikes targeted camps and hideouts affiliated with Pakistan based jihadist outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed. Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammad, which India claims to have targeted in Bahawalpur, has reportedly confirmed that members of his family and close associates were killed in the airstrikes. Bahawalpur town, which is in the southern part of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province, is the deepest India has struck since the two countries fought a full-blown war in 1971.
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