India, Pakistan accuse each other of attacks as hostilities rise

JAMMU, India/ISLAMABAD – India and Pakistan accused each other of launching new military attacks on May 9, using drones and artillery for the third day in the worst fighting between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours in nearly three decades.

The old enemies have been clashing since India struck multiple locations in Pakistan on May 7 that it said were “terrorist camps”, in retaliation for a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir in April.

Pakistan denied it was involved in the attack, but both countries have exchanged

cross-border firing and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other’s airspace since then,

with nearly four dozen people dying in the violence.

In a statement on May 9, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Republic is “gravely concerned” about the ongoing military confrontation between the two countries, following the “heinous terror attack” in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22.

“We call on both parties to de-escalate tensions through diplomatic means and ensure the safety of all civilians,” the ministry said.

Villagers have fled border areas in both countries, and many cities have been hit with blackouts, air raid warnings and panic buying of essentials.

India has suspended its prestigious Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament after one match was stopped midway on May 8 and the floodlights switched off.

The fighting is the deadliest since a limited conflict between the two countries in Kashmir’s Kargil region in 1999. India has targeted cities in Pakistan’s mainland provinces outside Pakistani Kashmir for the first time since their full-scale war in 1971.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on May 9 that India’s “jingoism and war hysteria” should be a source of serious concern for the world.

“It is most unfortunate that India’s reckless conduct has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict,” Mr Shafqat Ali Khan told a briefing in the capital Islamabad.

The Indian army said on May 9 that Pakistani troops had resorted to “numerous ceasefire violations” along the countries’ de facto border in Kashmir, a region that is divided between them but claimed in full by both.

“The drone attacks were effectively repulsed and befitting reply was given to the CFVs (ceasefire violations),” the army said, adding that all “nefarious designs” would be responded to with “force”.

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the Indian army’s statement was “baseless and misleading”, and that Pakistan had not undertaken any “offensive actions” targeting areas within Indian Kashmir or beyond the country’s border.

In Pakistani Kashmir, officials said heavy shelling from across the border killed five civilians, including an infant, and injured 29 in the early hours of May 9.

Pakistani military sources, meanwhile, said that its forces had shot down 77 Indian drones in the last two days, claiming they were Israeli-made.

India’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sirens in Amritsar

A “major infiltration bid” was “foiled” in Kashmir’s Samba region on the night of May 8, India’s Border Security Force said, and heavy artillery shelling persisted in the Uri area on May 9, according to a security official who did not want to be named.

“Several houses caught fire and were damaged in the shelling in the Uri sector... One woman was killed and another injured in overnight shelling,” the official said.

Sirens blared for more than two hours on May 9 in India’s border city of Amritsar, which houses the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, and residents were asked to remain indoors.

Hotels reported a sharp fall in occupancy as tourists fled the city by road since the airport was closed.

“We really wanted to stay, but the loud sounds, sirens and blackouts are giving us sleepless nights. Our families back home are worried for us, so we have booked a cab and are leaving,” said a British national who did not want to be named.

Other border areas also took precautionary measures on May 9, including Bhuj in Gujarat, where the authorities said tourist buses had been kept on standby to evacuate residents near the Pakistani border.

Schools and coaching centres were closed in the desert state of Rajasthan’s Bikaner region, and residents near the Pakistani border said they were asked to move farther away and consider moving in with relatives or using accommodation arranged by the government.

Ms Ansab, a student at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology in Jammu city, which was among the places where blasts were heard overnight, said the explosions were “more violent and louder” around 4am local time on May 8.

“For two to three minutes it became very loud, windows started shaking as if they would break,” she said, adding that the air was “smoggy” later – a mixture of smoke and fog.

World powers, from the US to China, have urged the two countries to calm tensions, and US Vice-President J.D. Vance on May 8 reiterated the call for de-escalation.

“We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible. We can’t control these countries, though,” he said in an interview on Fox News show The Story With Martha MacCallum.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir is scheduled to visit Pakistan on May 9, a senior Pakistani official said.

Mr Al-Jubeir was in India on May 8 and met India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who said he “shared India’s perspectives on firmly countering terrorism” with him.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Parliament that Islamabad is “speaking daily” to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and China about de-escalating the crisis.

The relationship between Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they became separate countries after attaining independence from colonial British rule in 1947.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, has been at the heart of the hostility, and the two sides have fought two of their three wars over the region. REUTERS, AFP