In­dia fired mis­siles in­to Pak­istani-con­trolled ter­ri­to­ry in sev­er­al lo­ca­tions ear­ly Wednes­day, killing at least 26 peo­ple in­clud­ing a child, in what Pak­istan’s leader called an act of war.

In­dia said it struck in­fra­struc­ture used by mil­i­tants linked to last month’s mas­sacre of tourists in the In­di­an-con­trolled por­tion of Kash­mir.

Pak­istan claimed it shot down sev­er­al In­di­an fight­er jets in re­tal­i­a­tion as two planes fell on­to vil­lages in In­dia-con­trolled Kash­mir. At least sev­en civil­ians were al­so killed in the re­gion by Pak­istani shelling, In­di­an po­lice and medics said.

Ten­sions have soared be­tween the nu­clear-armed neigh­bours since the at­tack, which In­dia has blamed Pak­istan for back­ing. Is­lam­abad has de­nied the ac­cu­sa­tion.

What to know:

Strikes fol­low an at­tack on Kash­mir: A dead­ly at­tack on tourists in the dis­put­ed re­gion of Kash­mir last month plunged re­la­tions be­tween In­dia and Pak­istan to new lows. In­dia ac­cus­es Pak­istan of back­ing the mas­sacre, in which 26 men, most­ly In­di­an Hin­dus, were killed, a charge Pak­istan de­nies. Both coun­tries sub­se­quent­ly ex­pelled diplo­mats and cit­i­zens, or­dered the bor­der shut and closed their air­space for each oth­er.

Scenes of pan­ic and de­struc­tion: The mis­siles hit six lo­ca­tions in Pak­istan-ad­min­is­tered Kash­mir and in the coun­try’s east­ern Pun­jab province, killing at least 26 peo­ple, in­clud­ing women and chil­dren, said Pak­istan’s mil­i­tary spokesper­son, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif. In­dia’s De­fence Min­istry said at least nine sites were tar­get­ed “where ter­ror­ist at­tacks against In­dia have been planned.”

Pak­istan re­sponds: In a state­ment, Pak­istan’s Prime Min­is­ter She­hbaz Sharif said “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.” The In­di­an army said that Pak­istan fired ar­tillery along what’s known as the de fac­to bor­der in Bhim­ber Gali in In­dia-con­trolled Kash­mir.

In­di­an Prime Min­is­ter post­pones trip to Nor­way, Croa­t­ia and Nether­lands

Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di has post­poned his up­com­ing of­fi­cial trip to Nor­way, Croa­t­ia and Nether­lands amid ris­ing ten­sions with Pak­istan. His trip was orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled to start next week.

Pak­istan’s Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee says it re­serves the right to re­spond

Pak­istan’s top po­lit­i­cal and mil­i­tary lead­ers on Wednes­day con­demned In­di­an airstrikes that they said killed 26 peo­ple.

The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee, chaired by Prime Min­is­ter She­hbaz Sharif, said in a state­ment that the In­di­an strikes were car­ried out “on the false pre­text of the pres­ence of imag­i­nary ter­ror­ist camps” and de­lib­er­ate­ly tar­get­ed civil­ian in­fra­struc­ture, in­clud­ing mosques.

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

Pak­istan’s mil­i­tary re­spond­ed to the strikes, the state­ment added, by down­ing five In­di­an fight­er jets and sur­veil­lance air­craft.

The gov­ern­ment said Pak­istan re­serves the right to re­spond “in self-de­fence, at a time, place, and man­ner of its choos­ing” and that the armed forces have been au­tho­rised to take “cor­re­spond­ing ac­tions” to avenge what it called a vi­o­la­tion of the coun­try’s sov­er­eign­ty.

Rus­sia calls on two coun­tries to de-es­ca­late and find a peace­ful so­lu­tion

Rus­sia has called on the two coun­tries to de-es­ca­late and find a peace­ful so­lu­tion.

“We are deeply con­cerned about the es­ca­la­tion of mil­i­tary con­fronta­tion be­tween In­dia and Pak­istan fol­low­ing the ter­ror­ist at­tack near Pa­hal­gam,” Russ­ian For­eign Min­istry spokesper­son Maria Za­kharo­va said in an of­fi­cial state­ment Wednes­day.

“Rus­sia strong­ly con­demns acts of ter­ror­ism, op­pos­es any man­i­fes­ta­tion of ter­ror­ism, and em­pha­sis­es the need to unite the en­tire in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to ef­fec­tive­ly com­bat this evil.”

“We call on the par­ties in­volved to ex­er­cise re­straint in or­der to pre­vent the fur­ther de­te­ri­o­ra­tion of the sit­u­a­tion in the re­gion. We hope that dif­fer­ences be­tween New Del­hi and Is­lam­abad will be re­solved peace­ful­ly, through po­lit­i­cal and diplo­mat­ic means on a bi­lat­er­al ba­sis .”

In­di­an mil­i­tary says it showed re­straint

Wing Com­man­der Vy­omi­ka Singh, said the strikes were un­der­tak­en through “pre­ci­sion ca­pa­bil­i­ty” so that there was “no col­lat­er­al dam­age.”

“In­dia has demon­strat­ed con­sid­er­able re­straint in its re­sponse,” she said. “How­ev­er, it must be said that the In­di­an armed forces are ful­ly pre­pared re­spond to Pak­istani mis­ad­ven­tures if any that will es­ca­late the sit­u­a­tion.”

In­di­an Army says strikes last­ed 25 min­utes

Col. Sofiya Qureshi, an In­di­an army of­fi­cer, said the In­di­an mis­sile strikes start­ed at 1.05 am and last­ed for about 25 min­utes. She said no mil­i­tary in­stal­la­tions were tar­get­ed.

These mil­i­tary strikes were de­signed “to de­liv­er jus­tice to the vic­tims of the Pa­hal­gam ter­ror at­tack and their fam­i­lies,” she said.

BY  THE AS­SO­CI­AT­ED PRESS