India-Pakistan Fighting: India briefed US after missile attack on Pakistan

India-Pakistan Fighting: India briefed US after missile attack on Pakistan

Trump administration ‘very engaged’ on India-Pakistan tensions

Michael Kugelman, a writer at Foreign Policy magazine specialised in South Asia, notes that US President Trump’s administration has expressed a desire to help de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan since last month’s attack in Pahalgam.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been in touch with his Indian and Pakistani counterparts. A State Department spokesperson also said earlier that the US government “is very engaged” on the issue.

“We’re at the point now where the escalation risks have really grown, and that suggests the Trump administration will want to do what it can to urge the sides to de-escalate,” Kugelman told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

While US efforts to mediate between the two sides are positive, “it would be helpful” to have other countries push for de-escalation as well, he added.

Pakistan claims ‘downing two Indian fighter jets’

The Pakistan military’s media chief, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudry, has claimed that Pakistan has “downed Indian fighter jets”, without providing any further information.

“There are two confirmed aircraft of the Indian Air Force that have already been shot down. There are other reports of multiple damages that the Pakistani forces, both on ground and air, have inflicted,” he told CNN.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also repeated the claim in an interview with British news channel Sky News.

“We shot down two Indian planes and we are responding to Indian aggression right now as we speak,” Tarrar said.

There was no immediate comment from India.

Leader of Pakistan People’s Party says nation is ‘united, defiant’

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a former foreign minister and chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has described India’s attacks as “cowardly and unprovoked”.

“Attacks on civilian targets in Muridke, Bahawalpur, Kotli & Muzaffarabad are acts of war,” Bhutto Zardari said on X.

“Pakistan’s armed forces, backed by an unbreakable nation, are responding with full force,” he said, adding that the nation is “united, defiant, and ready”.

The 5 places Pakistan says India targeted

 - Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir
- Kotli, Pakistan-administered Kashmir
- Bagh, Pakistan-administered Kashmir
- Bahawalpur, Pakistan’s Punjab province
- Muridke, Pakistan’s Punjab province

How many wars have India and Pakistan fought?

Four – three of them over Kashmir.

Two months after the end of the British rule and emergence of the two South Asian nations, a war over Kashmir erupted between them. Pakistani militias invaded Kashmir, then ruled by a Hindu king, to claim full control over the region. The king, Hari Singh, pleaded with India for help. New Delhi agreed on condition that Singh would sign an instrument of accession, merging Kashmir with India. The king agreed. The war ended in 1948, and a ceasefire agreement allowing India and Pakistan to control parts of Kashmir came into effect on January 1, 1949.

In 1965, a clash between Indian and Pakistani border forces escalated into a full-blown war. Pakistani forces crossed the ceasefire line into Indian-administered Kashmir, while Indian forces crossed the international border into Pakistan’s Lahore city and launched attacks. After thousands of casualties on both sides, a UN Security Council resolution ended the war.

In 1971, Pakistan and India were embroiled in an armed conflict over then East Pakistan, which Indian forces helped liberate, leading to the establishment of Bangladesh as a nation. In 1972, India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement, which established a Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing Kashmir into two parts.

In 1999, Pakistani soldiers crossed the LoC, sparking a war in Kargil area of Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian troops were able to push Pakistani soldiers back after bloody battles in the snowy heights of the Ladakh region.

Pakistan speaks of ‘crushing response’

In a social media post, Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, accused India of carrying out “cowardly attacks on innocent civilians and mosques”.

India said it had hit “terrorist infrastructure”, claiming it struck sites where attacks against it were planned and directed.

In his post, Tarar said that “the Armed Forces of Pakistan are delivering a crushing response, exactly in line with the sentiments of the people”, without offering details.

“This nation will hold the enemy accountable for every single drop of its martyrs’ blood,” he added.

India briefed US after missile attack on Pakistan

Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval briefed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly after the attacks against Pakistan, the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, says.

“India’s actions have been focused and precise,” the embassy said in a statement.

It added that Rubio, who is also Trump’s acting US national security adviser, had been briefed “on the actions taken”.