India-Pakistan military reprisals escalate: what we know so far

Kate Lamb

• Pakistan launched a retaliatory military operation against India early on Saturday, its military said, targeting multiple bases including a missile storage site in northern India as the nuclear-armed neighbours extended their worst fighting in nearly three decades.

• Pakistan military officials told state-run media the Pathankot military airfield in Punjab and Udhampur air force base in Indian-administered Kashmir were among the targets, with loud explosions heard from both. Officials said the operation was called Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos, an Arabic phrase meaning “wall of lead”.

• Pakistan’s offensive came shortly after it said India had fired missiles from fighter jets at three air bases earlier on Saturday, including one close to the capital, Islamabad. Pakistani said its air defences had intercepted most of them.

• Among the targets was Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi, where the Pakistani military has its headquarters, which is around 10km from Islamabad. The strikes caused panic in the densely populated area, with loud explosions sending residents running into the streets. In the aftermath of the strikes, Pakistan shut down its air space.

• Following Saturday’s strikes, Pakistan prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, called a meeting of the National Command Authority, the military said. The authority is the top body of civilian and military officials that takes security decisions including those related to the country’s nuclear arsenal.

• India’s attempted strikes on Rawalpindi and other key military bases – and the launch of Pakistan’s counter-attack on Saturday – marks the steepest escalation in their confrontation yet, bringing the two countries the closest they have been to war in decades.

• Locked in a longstanding dispute over Kashmir, the two countries have engaged in daily clashes since Wednesday, when India launched strikes inside Pakistan on what it called militant bases.

• At least 48 people have been killed since Wednesday, according to casualty estimates on both sides of the border that have not been independently verified.

• The dramatic flare up comes after a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month, when 26 civilians were killed. India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants behind the attack.

• India’s defence and foreign ministries did not immediately comment on the strikes, but India’s military said it had actively begun large-scale mobilisation of additional forces to the border, including activating its reserve territorial army (TA), to ensure full operational strength of the army in the event of any further conflict escalation.

• The G7 has called for an “immediate de-escalation” and “maximum restraint” between India and Pakistan amid the flaring conflict. “Further military escalation poses a serious threat to regional stability,” G7 foreign ministers said in a statement on Saturday.