Pakistan’s military says it is retaliating after accusing India of striking three of its airbases.
India has not commented on the claims, which were made in the early hours of Saturday.
BusinessDay reports that one of the airbases reportedly hit, Nur Khan, is in Rawalpindi—just 10km (6.2 miles) from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
Earlier this week, India struck targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in response to a deadly militant attack on Indian tourists in Pahalgam last month. Islamabad denies any involvement in the attack.
Both sides accuse each other of cross-border shelling, missile and drone attacks since India launched its military operation.
Indian-administered Kashmir has seen a decades-long insurgency which has claimed thousands of lives.
This is the moment few would have wanted to see happen in the subcontinent.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are now firing missiles at each other, marking a dangerous escalation in the ongoing military confrontation between both countries.
The Pakistani military claims it has destroyed an Indian airbase, an airfield and a missile storage unit in India. If confirmed, that would represent a massive provocation. Islamabad stated this was in response to India’s missile strikes, including one close to the capital, Islamabad. There has been no confirmation yet from the Indian side regarding Pakistan’s version of events.
After days of drone warfare, the two countries appear to have entered unknown, rather troubling territory. The scale and intensity of the current skirmishes is the worst in three decades. The nature of damage suffered by both sides will likely determine the next course of action in both capitals.
The international community must be deeply concerned at this point. With passions running high on both sides, it remains anybody’s guess how far the escalation will be ratcheted up.
