- India and Pakistan exchange fire across the line of control between Indian- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir after India launched Operation Sindoor.
- Pakistan says India’s missile attacks on Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens. India says at least 13 have been killed and more wounded in Indian-administered Kashmir due to Pakistani fire.
- Pakistan says it shot down five Indian fighter jets – India is yet to respond.
- India says its attacks hit “terror” training sites; Pakistan says mosques and civilians were struck, calling it an “act of war” and promising a robust response.
- Tensions have been escalating between the two nuclear-armed countries since a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, which India blamed on Pakistan. Pakistan has denied any involvement.
Flights temporarily suspended at three airports in Pakistan: Report
The Reuters news agency reports that flight operations at Pakistan’s Karachi, Lahore, and Sialkot airports have been temporarily suspended.
According to the news agency, services will be unavailable until 12 noon local time (07:00 GMT) at Lahore and Sialkot, according to the Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority.
There were no further details for Karachi airport or what had prompted the flight suspensions.
Indian spy drone downed in Lahore: Report
Earlier, we reported that an unidentified explosion had been reported in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
Citing local police officials, Pakistani news outlet Samaa TV now reports that an Indian drone was shot down near Walton road in the city.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
15 civilians killed by Pakistani shelling in Indian-administered Kashmir
There was panic in the border town of Poonch in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday, not far from the Line of Control separating it from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, as Pakistan’s military carried out several deadly attacks.
Many of those who were rushed to hospital were women and children.
What are India and Pakistan’s military and nuclear capabilities?
India carried out its first nuclear test in May 1974, and in May 1998, conducted another five tests, declaring itself a nuclear weapons state.
Pakistan carried out its first nuclear tests shortly after India’s in 1998, officially becoming a nuclear weapons state.
Since then, the two nations have been engaged in an arms race that has cost them billions of dollars.
According to Global Firepower’s 2025 military strength rankings, India is the fourth-strongest military power in the world, and Pakistan is ranked as the 12th strongest.
India’s total military strength is 5,137,550 personnel, which is almost three times larger than Pakistan’s 1,704,000.
India possesses 2,229 military aircraft, compared with Pakistan’s 1,399.
While India has 3,151 combat tanks, compared with Pakistan’s 1,839.
Read the full report here.
Pakistan-India ‘dog fight’ one of largest, longest in recent aviation history: Report
As we reported on Tuesday, the Pakistani military claimed that it had “downed Indian fighter jets” during fighting earlier this week.
A senior unnamed Pakistani security source has now told CNN that Pakistan’s military downed five Indian planes in what he described as one of the “largest and longest” aviation “dog fight[s]” in recent history.
The source said that a total of 125 fighter jets from both sides battled for over an hour earlier this week. He added that neither side left their own airspace and missile exchanges were happening at distances sometimes greater than 160km (100 miles).
Blasts heard in Pakistani city of Lahore
The Reuters news agency, citing geo reporting and witnesses on the ground, reports that blasts have been heard in the city of Lahore in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
Trump says he hopes India and Pakistan stop now after going ‘tit-for-tat’
US President Donald Trump said he hoped India and Pakistan would stop their escalation after they had “gone tit-for-tat”.
“They’ve gone tit-for-tat, so hopefully they can stop now,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday, adding he knew both sides “very well” and wanted “to see them work it out”.
“And if I can do anything to help, I will be there,” he added.
The US State Department said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had discussed efforts to de-escalate tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad with his Saudi Arabian counterpart in a call earlier on Wednesday.
India–Pakistan conflict offers ‘strategic openings’ to China, Iran while limiting US influence
We posted earlier on how the Australian National University’s Alam Saleh said the escalating tension between India and Pakistan would be to China’s advantage and the US’s disadvantage in terms of regional geopolitics.
Saleh, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at ANU, said sustained tension between India and Pakistan would tie down New Delhi’s attention and resources and place limits on its regional assertiveness and growing alignment with the US.
The US also finds itself in a “delicate position” between India – “a strategic partner” – on one hand, and Pakistan – a longtime, though complicated “security actor” – on the other, Saleh said.
Amid the tension, Iran “quietly benefits”, he added.
“As the US struggles with simultaneous crises in the Middle East and South Asia, its capacity to pressure Tehran, particularly in the context of faltering nuclear negotiations, is diminished,” Saleh told Al Jazeera.
“A distracted and overstretched Washington gives Iran more room to manoeuvre both regionally and diplomatically,” he said.
“In sum, the India–Pakistan conflict offers strategic openings to both China and Iran, while placing the United States in a position of reactive limitation rather than proactive influence,” he added.
Meta blocks Indian users from accessing Muslim news page on Instagram
Instagram’s parent company Meta has blocked Indian users from accessing a prominent Muslim news page on the social media site, as hostilities escalate between India and Pakistan.
Instagram users in India attempting to access the page – which uses the handle @Muslim and has 6.7 million followers – were met with the message: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”
“I received hundreds of messages, emails and comments from our followers in India, that they cannot access our account,” Ameer al-Khatahtbeh, the account’s founder and editor, said in a statement.
“Meta has blocked the @Muslim account by legal request of the Indian government. This is censorship,” he added.
Meta declined to comment when contacted by AFP. But a spokesman for the firm directed the news agency to a company webpage outlining its policy for restricting content when governments believe material on its platforms goes “against local law”.
Access has also been blocked to the social media accounts of Pakistani actors and cricketers over recent days.
India-Pakistan tension a strategic benefit for China, puts US in ‘delicate position’: Analyst
Alam Saleh, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at the Australian National University, said the escalation in tension between India and Pakistan again “underscores the fragility of regional stability in South Asia”.
Saleh told Al Jazeera that the clashes between India and Pakistan also have “broader geopolitical reverberations”, particularly for China’s geo-strategic positioning in the region.
“China stands to benefit strategically from sustained Indo-Pakistan tensions. As a close ally of Pakistan and a regional competitor to India, Beijing views Islamabad as a key counterweight to Indian influence,” Saleh said.
“Continued instability ties down Indian resources and attention, limiting its regional assertiveness and alignment with US Indo-Pacific objectives. China is thus likely to maintain and deepen its support for Pakistan, both diplomatically and militarily,” he said.
“The United States finds itself in a delicate position. As a strategic partner of India and a longtime, though complicated, security actor in Pakistan, Washington is constrained from fully siding with either party,” he added.
“Escalation threatens to undermine [the US’s] broader Indo-Pacific strategy and further complicate its waning influence in the region.”
Pakistan vows retaliation after India launches air strikes
Pakistan’s government has pledged to respond to India’s attack “at a time, place and manner of its choosing”.
The government also said that it would “avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty” following India’s missile attacks that killed at least 31 and injured dozens.
India said 13 civilians have been killed and 43 wounded on the Indian side of the Line of Control dividing Indian- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where heavy cross-border shelling and gunfire were reported.
Read the full report here.
India-Pakistan posturing for domestic gain, but risk of war looms – Analysis
Georgetown University assistant professor Uday Chandra has characterised the ongoing crisis as a performative “game of chicken” aimed at domestic audiences in India and Pakistan, with backchannel negotiations quietly persisting.
Chandra, while highlighting Pakistan’s pledge to see the conflict through to its “logical conclusion”, dismissed the likelihood of full-scale war.
He said unverified claims from Pakistan of downed Indian jets – fiercely contested by Delhi – exemplify the current “fog of war”. Chandra also stressed that civilian casualties have exposed India’s security lapses, intensifying political pressure on New Delhi.
A recap of recent developments
Here’s what you need to know:
- Pakistan has said 31 civilians have been killed and dozens wounded by India’s strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. India said 13 people have been killed in cross-border attacks from Pakistan, including one soldier.
- Addressing parliament, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan’s military shot down five Indian fighter jets during India’s assault.
- India claims its attacks have hit “terror” training sites; Pakistan says mosques and civilians were struck, calling it an “act of war” and promising a robust response.
- Pakistan’s National Security Committee said it has authorised the country’s armed forces to retaliate against India’s attacks, saying Pakistan reserves the right to respond “at a time, place, and manner of its choosing”.
- Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said Islamabad is looking to avoid an all-out war with India, but must be prepared for one.
- World powers – including the UK, France, Germany, Iran, Turkiye, Qatar and the UAE – have urged both nuclear-armed nations to show restraint and return to diplomacy.
- Iran has offered to mediate peace talks, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has already held separate discussions with both India and Pakistan over the past day.
Iran’s FM arrives in India
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has landed in New Delhi, where he will hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Iranian news outlets report.
Araghchi had visited Pakistan earlier this week.
Iran has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan, underscoring that it enjoys good ties with both countries.
Blackout reported in India’s Punjab as part of drill
Indian news agency ANI says a blackout process has started in the Punjab region, which borders Pakistan, as part of an emergency preparedness exercise.
“Please stay at home, do not panic and do not gather outside your houses; keep the outside lights switched off,” ANI said, quoting local authorities.
How were India’s strikes on Pakistan a major escalation?
The Indian attacks were the most expansive since the neighbours last fought a full-fledged war in 1971 – a time when neither had nuclear weapons at their disposal as they do now.
Of the six places that Indian missiles struck, two are cities – Muzaffarabad and Kotli – in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The region of Kashmir, one of the world’s most militarised zones, is claimed in full, and ruled in parts, by India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars over it.
But the other four targets that India struck are in Punjab -Bahawalpur, Muridke, Sialkot and Shakar Garh. Among them, Bahawalpur falls in southern Punjab province, facing the Thar desert, while Muridke is just next to Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, with a population of 14 million.
The Indian military has not hit Punjab, Pakistan’s economic heartland that is also home to 60 percent of the country’s population, since 1971.
Indian air attacks since then have mostly targeted remote parts of Pakistan or Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Six years ago, Indian jets fired missiles at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after a suicide bomber killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in Indian-administered Kashmir.
These May 7 attacks are different. Lahore, next to Muridke, is close to the Indian border and is Pakistan’s second-most populous city, pointed out Sumantra Bose, an Indian political scientist whose work focuses on the intersection of nationalism and conflict in South Asia. Bahawalpur, in southern Punjab, is also a key city.
‘Now is the time to lean into diplomacy’: US senator
Tim Kaine, a US Senator from Virginia, calls on New Delhi and Islamabad to find a “path towards de-escalation” and to ensure accountability for the Pahalgam attack.
“For the sake of innocent civilians in India and Pakistan – now is the time to lean into diplomacy,” the Democratic US senator wrote in a social media post.
India says soldier killed in cross-border attack
An Indian soldier, named as Dinesh Kumar, was killed in cross-border shelling on Wednesday, Indian media outlets report, citing the Indian Army.
The death brings the total number of people killed in India as a result of the cross-border violence to 13.
Islamabad confirms contact between Indian and Pakistani officials
Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar says that the national security advisers of India and Pakistan have spoken amid the escalation between the two countries.
“There has been contact between the two, yes,” he told TRT World without providing further details.
Medical leave cancelled in Pakistan’s Sindh as hospitals declare state of emergency
Sindh province, which is home to Pakistan’s largest city Karachi and borders India, has made the decision following India’s air strikes in the early hours of Wednesday.
In a notice seen by the Pakistani news outlet Dawn, medical leave has been cancelled for all health personnel, including doctors, nurses and paramedics, with immediate effect until further notice.
Emergency response units have also been put on high alert.
Pakistan pushing for de-escalation of conflict despite wanting to respond to India’s attacks
Uday Chandra, assistant professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, says Pakistan is likely to retaliate but is not seeking an “all-out war”.
He noted that both sides are not engaged in direct talks. Rather, it’s other countries, including the US and China “who are calling for restraint – and kind of urging India to pull back”.
“I see the Pakistan strategy to push for de-escalating the conflict and to paint India as the aggressor,” he said. “So Pakistan detaches itself from the incident that took place two weeks ago in Indian-administered Kashmir.”
Meanwhile, there has been an expectation building from inside India that the government needs to retaliate.
“Both sides are speaking to their middle-class, TV-watching audiences,” Chandra said.
If you’re just joining us
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
- Pakistan’s National Security Committee authorises the country’s military to “undertake corresponding actions” against India.
- The Pakistani military says the death toll from India’s attacks has risen to 31 civilians, with dozens of others injured.
- Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif says Islamabad is looking to avoid an all-out war with India but must be prepared for one.
- India carries out emergency readiness drills that saw a temporary blackout in New Delhi.
- US President Trump says the US is willing to help India and Pakistan stop the hostilities.
India’s home minister asks border states to be on high alert
Amit Shah says he has met with the governors of states bordering Pakistan and Nepal and asked them “to maintain the availability of essential goods and services and to keep relief and rescue forces” on alert.
“Instructed to monitor and take swift action on anti-national propaganda on all media platforms and to maintain seamless communication and security at vulnerable points,” Shah said in a social media post.
More than 20 airports across India closed until May 10: Report
At least 21 airports in northern and western India have been closed for passenger flights until May 10 following a government directive, the Hindu reports.
US Muslim group condemns India’s attacks
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) slams Modi’s government and accuses it of “anti-Muslim bigotry” and “extremism”.
“This deliberate targeting of civilians and religious sites – such as mosques – reflects the goals of the fascist, anti-Muslim Hindutva movement embodied by Narendra Modi,” CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
Pakistan says Indian attack endangered civilian aviation
Pakistani military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says 57 flights were in the air during the Indian assault.
“There were multiple flights with thousands of passengers whose lives were put in grave danger,” Chaudhry was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
“These were not just Pakistani flights, but there were Saudi flights, Qatari, Emirates, Etihad, Gulf Air, Chinese and Korean flights.”
Trump offers to help to end India-Pakistan crisis
US President Donald Trump says he wants to see an end to the escalation between India and Pakistan.
“I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help, I will be there,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“We want to see them work it out.”
Armed group says 10 relatives of leader killed in Indian attack
Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of the group’s India has blamed for last month’s Pahalgam attack, says that 10 relatives of its leader Masood Azhar were killed in India’s attacks on Pakistan overnight, the Reuters news agency reports.
The group did not say whether Azhar himself was killed.
Azhar was released from an Indian jail in 1999 in exchange for 155 hostages from a hijacked Indian Airlines plane.
Pakistan says it authorised its military to respond to Indian attack
Pakistan’s National Security Committee calls India’s assault a “heinous and shameful crime” in violation of international law.
“In consonance with Article-51 of the UN Charter, Pakistan reserves the right to respond, in self-defence, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty,” the committee said in a statement.
“The Armed Forces of Pakistan have duly been authorized to undertake corresponding actions in this regard.”
India appeals for information on Pahalgam attack
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has called on people with information or photographs related to the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir last month to contact law enforcement.
The NIA “has now decided to scale up its efforts even more intensely to ensure that no useful information or evidence is missed out in its investigation into the horrendous crime against humanity”, the agency said in a statement.
India had alleged links between the attackers and Pakistan – claims that Islamabad has vehemently denied.
Erdogan conveys Turkiye’s solidarity to Pakistan PM
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to convey his solidarity following India’s attacks, the Turkish presidency said.
During the call, Erdogan told Sharif that Turkiye supported what he called Pakistan’s “calm and restrained policies” in the crisis, his office said in a statement.
Erdogan also said he found “appropriate” Islamabad’s call for an investigation into an attack last month on Indian-administered Kashmir that triggered the crisis.
“Erdogan stated that Turkiye was ready to do what it can to prevent the tensions from escalating, and that his diplomatic contacts in that regard would continue,” the statement said.
Pakistan PM Sharif says India will ‘suffer the consequences’ in address to nation
Sharif addressed the Pakistani people in a televised speech shortly after he attended the funeral of seven-year-old Irtaza Abbas, who was killed in the Indian attack.
“We resolve that we will avenge the blood of our innocent martyrs,” Sharif said. “Last night, we showed that Pakistan can deliver a jaw-breaking response for its defence. At the Line of Control, the dogfight raged for about an hour. Pakistani pilots remained in their airspace, the enemy’s planes were shattered to pieces.”
“In conventional warfare last night, we proved that Pakistan prevailed.”
Sharif also emphasised Pakistan’s position on Kashmir. “As per international law, Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and will remain until a plebiscite is done,” the prime minister said. “Regardless of how many unilateral decisions India takes, it cannot change the reality.”
Pakistan ‘trying to avoid’ full-fledged war: Defence minister
Khawaja Asif calls the Indian assault an “invitation to expand the conflict”.
Asif told CNN that his country is “trying to avoid” an all-out war with India but must be prepared for one.
“We cannot be caught with our guards down,” he said.
Welcome to our coverage
Hello, and thank you for joining our coverage of fighting between India and Pakistan after the deadly attack in Pahalgam in India-administered Kashmir last month.
Follow this page for up-to-the-minute updates on the latest developments, along with context and analysis.
