Eight people were killed in Pakistan on the morning of 7 May in missile attacks by Indian armed forces, Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif, Director General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), told a press conference.
He called the attack a “blatant act of war” amid rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours. According to Sharif, there were “24 Indian strikes on six locations” that killed eight citizens and injured 35. Another eight people were missing.
“Pakistan will retaliate to the attack,” he said at the end of the press conference without answering a question.
The Indian army also reported civilian deaths-it claimed three civilians were killed by Pakistani troops who resorted to “arbitrary” firing on the Line of Control. This is the de facto border dividing Kashmir-the centre of an 80-year-old territorial dispute between the two countries. The command added that the Indian Army is “responding proportionately”.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on social networking site X that Pakistan had shot down three Indian aircraft and one drone. The Indian command did not comment on the statement.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has scheduled an emergency meeting of the National Security Committee for the morning of 7 May.
Punjab Province Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz declared a state of emergency in the region bordering India. All schools, colleges and universities will be closed. Police and other security agencies have been put on high alert and doctors on leave have been asked to report for duty.
The attack caused alarm in Washington United States President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the attack and hoped the fighting would “end very quickly”. In New York, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern over the attack and called for maximum restraint from both countries.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” Guterres was quoted as saying by his spokesman.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has contacted Pakistan’s national security adviser Lieutenant General Asim Malik, who is also the head of Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to discuss the situation.
Rubio also spoke to his Indian counterpart Subramanyam Jaishankar and said he would continue to work with both India and Pakistan to reach a resolution to the conflict.
“He (Rubio – ed.) urges India and Pakistan to re-establish communication between their leadership to defuse the situation and prevent further escalation,” National Security Council Speaker Brian Hughes said.
The day before, the Indian Defence Ministry said missile strikes on several sites in Pakistan. It called the action by its armed forces “targeted, measured and non-escalatory”. Instead, the director general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said five neighbourhoods were hit by rockets, killing two adults and a child and injuring 12 civilians.
India blamed Pakistan for the violence that killed 26 people and vowed to retaliate. Pakistan denied involvement in the killings and also said it had intelligence that India was planning to attack. India has not commented.