A man stands inside his house destroyed by Pakistani artillery shelling in the village of Salamabad, India, Thursday.
Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
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Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
Pakistan’s army said it shot down 25 military drones that fanned over population centers — including the city that houses Pakistan’s general army headquarters.
By Thursday evening, residents in Indian border towns reported hearing blasts. Authorities announced blackouts along parts of the border, and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken to the Pakistani prime minister and the Indian foreign minister, urging “immediate de-escalation” by both countries.
It was the latest ratcheting of tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries that began with gunmen killing Indian tourists in late April.
“This is a serious, serious provocation,” Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary said of the Indian drones in an English-language statement. “It appears that India has apparently lost the plot. Rather than going on a path of rationality, it is further escalating in a highly charged environment.”
Amid the tensions, the U.S. Consulate General in Lahore, Pakistan, directed its staff to shelter in place. Operations were suspended in Indian and Pakistani airports near their border. School was out in border areas of both Pakistan and India.
Parents on one Pakistani WhatsApp group exchanged emergency checklists that included baby milk powder and coloring books to keep kids busy. “Stay calm, stay prepared. May we all remain safe,” the list concluded.
The escalation began after the killing on April 22
The escalation began after India accused Pakistan of being behind an attack where gunmen killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in India-administered Kashmir on April 22. It was the worst attack against Indian civilians since 2002, and it sparked outrage across India after eyewitnesses reported the gunmen specifically targeted Hindu men. Pakistan denies any connection to the attack. The Himalayan territory is divided between India and Pakistan; both countries claim it in its entirety.
Paramedics carry an injured tourist at a hospital in Anantnag, south of Srinagar, on April 22, following an attack. Gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir opened fire on a group of tourists in one of the worst attacks targeting civilians for years in the region.
Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images
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Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images
In the early hours on Wednesday, India struck what it called “terrorist infrastructure” across Pakistan, in the most widespread strikes it had conducted against its neighbor since the two sides went to war in 1971. India described the strikes as retribution. Pakistan said the strikes and subsequent shelling killed 31 people, including children. Pakistan’s military said it downed five Indian aircraft, which India did not comment on.
India accused Pakistan of killing 16 civilians in cross-border fire.
“The potential for greater escalation is very high”
On Thursday morning, residents reported hearing the sound of blasts in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, near an old airport.
Muhammad Abbas, a 47-year-old groundskeeper in an upscale Lahore suburb, was washing a car when he heard a bang. He said “a few people were frightened,” but otherwise, people carried on. “Pakistani people are not cowards who hide in their houses. Whatever happens, will happen to all of us.”
The blasts appeared to be related to one of the drones, which army spokesman Sharif said had “managed to engage a military target near Lahore.” He said four army personnel were injured in that incident.
India’s information ministry said its armed forces “targeted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan,” and added “it has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised.”
A Kashmiri man using a cellphone light during a blackout is seen after residents of the city of Jammu reported hearing explosions and sirens in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Thursday.
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Mukhtar Khan/AP
By Thursday evening, blasts could be heard above the towns in Jammu, Achabal and Anantnag in Indian-administered Kashmir. An Indian army spokesperson, Suneel Bartwal, told NPR that districts along the line that separates India and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir “have been put on high alert. A blackout is in place.”
Any new development could change calculations on either side, said Ajai Shukla, a strategic affairs commentator and retired Indian army colonel.
“The potential for greater escalation is very high.” Both countries had a deep bench of military capabilities, he said. “They’ve barely touched the surface so far.”
On Thursday, Indian residents piled by the roadside to watch security forces gathered around one fallen projectile in a field in the village of Makhan Windi, some 25 miles from the Pakistani border. The mood was more curiosity than fear.
But in Poonch, a town in Indian-held Kashmir, local resident Narendar Singh said most of his neighbors had fled after Pakistani shelling. Resident Sarfaraz Ahmad Mir said Pakistani shelling overnight killed his cousins, a twin boy and girl aged 11-years-old.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” Mir said. ” They shouldn’t have targeted civilians at all.”
Even as hostilities gripped the public’s attention, human rights activists said Indian authorities had rounded up and detained more than 30 Rohingya refugees from their homes in the Indian capital, including the elderly parents of David Nazir.
Nazir said his wife was spared, because she was pregnant. Nazir said he, and some other Rohingya managed to flee, and slept in a park. A lawyer, Colin Gonsalves, who is representing the detained people, said the government appeared to have taken advantage of the situation to detain the men. Delhi police did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“All it takes is a miscalculation or a mistake”
In his call with Pakistan’s prime minister, Secretary of State Rubio “expressed U.S. support for direct dialogue between India and Pakistan and encouraged continued efforts to improve communications,” according to a State Department statement.
Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst for India with International Crisis Group, said the international community needed to take the conflict between India and Pakistan seriously.
“Both are nuclear powers. And all it takes is a miscalculation or a mistake,” Donthi said on NPR’s Morning Edition. “Both these powers are not completely in control of the escalation dynamics, which the world seems to believe. So there lies the risk.”
Army personnel examine the remains of a projectile discovered in Makhanwindi village near Amritsar, India, on Thursday.
Raminder Pal Singh/ANI Photo via Reuters
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Raminder Pal Singh/ANI Photo via Reuters
He said Washington had the best chance of ending the hostilities, because of the country’s historic ties with Pakistan, and its increasing closeness to India.
“Ultimately,” he said, “the U.S. is the superpower who can bring both the parties to the table.”
Diaa Hadid reported in Mumbai, India. Bilal Kuchay contributed reporting from Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, Betsy Joles contributed from Lahore, Pakistan, and Omkar Khandekar from Mumbai.
