India’s defence minister claims attacks did not affect civilians

India’s defence minister claims attacks did not affect civilians

Germany calls for ‘responsible action’, Japan warns of further escalation

Germany‘s foreign office has issued a statement on X calling for calm as tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate.

“Following the horrific terrorist attack in Kashmir and the Indian military response to it, responsible action from both countries is urgently needed”, the statement reads. “Escalation must be prevented and civilians protected”.

It said that Germany is in contact with India and Pakistan, and is monitoring the situation closely.

Japan echoed these sentiments in its own statement, saying that the country is “deeply concerned that the recent series of events could lead to further reprisals and escalate into a full-scale military conflict”.

“Japan strongly urges both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and stabilize the situation through dialogue for the peace and stability in South Asia”, the statement from Iwaya Takeshi, Japan’s foreign minister, said.

Real risk of military escalation in India-Pakistan conflict despite attempts to contain it

Federica Marsi

There is a risk of an accidental escalation between India and Pakistan, despite New Delhi trying to “control the escalation ladder”, according to Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House.

“India’s actions and statements – claiming that it has targeted terrorist camps and not military facilities – indicate that it is trying to (ensure) that (the) conflict does not escalate to a wider conventional or nuclear conflict,” the analyst said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera.

Bajpaee said India launched a precision strike operation very similar to the ones it had launched in 2016 and 2019 following attacks against Indian security forces.

“However, both sides have clearly developed a more assertive military posture in recent years,” he continued. “It remains to be seen if limited tit-for-tat actions suffice in appeasing both countries’ domestic political constituencies and hyper-nationalist foreign policies, or if it leads to broader escalation.

“As long as we see these casualties being confined to Kashmir, and we don’t see attacks on military installations on either side, there’s still hope that the conflict will remain relatively contained,” he added.

Pakistan summons India’s charge d’affaires: Report

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has called in India’s Charge d’Affaires Geetika Srivastava – New Delhi’s top diplomat in Islamabad – to rebuke India’s overnight attacks, reports Pakistan’s state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

“It was conveyed that India’s blatant act of aggression constitutes a clear violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” the ministry was quoted as saying. “Such actions are in contravention of the UN Charter, international law, and established norms governing inter-state relations.”

It added that “Pakistan firmly rejected India’s baseless justifications for its hostile conduct.”

Are India’s attacks on Pakistan unprecedented?

No, India’s response is not unprecedented.

In 2016, it launched surgical strikes in response to the killing of 19 Indian soldiers at an army base in Uri, in Indian-administered Kashmir.

It also launched air attacks near Pakistan’s Balakot following the 2019 Pulwama bombing, a suicide attack that killed 40 soldiers in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Additionally, in 2001, India initiated Operation Parakram in response to attacks by armed men who stormed the Indian parliament. This led to a military standoff that lasted 10 months.

However, India’s 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.

India, Pakistan and diplomacy

James Bays, Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor

In some cases, one of the first things countries do in such tense times is to cut diplomatic relations.

They’d say the other side’s ambassador needs to leave their capital and normally that becomes a tit-for-tat situation – in this case, to be precise, we have high commissioners rather than ambassadors because both India and Pakistan are members of the Commonwealth – and that’s what an ambassador is called in a Commonwealth country.

It’s interesting that they’ve retained their ties, which they have downgraded before – perhaps an indication not just of the current crisis but of the number of the relations there are between India and Pakistan. Even in times of such tensions, there is so much trade between these two vast countries, and that, of course, continues.

There’s certainly a line of communication between the two countries, with the most important being the military-to-military links – they have ways of talking to each other.

Looking back at the last time there was a tense period in 2019, and I have no way of confirming this, but the former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed in his book that he was on the phone and he reduced the tensions – in fact he and the then-National Security Advisor John Bolton were attending talks between the US and North Korea in Hanoi, Vietnam and they went into a secure room and phoned both sides to defuse tensions.

Now the question is whether the US will be able to perform that role again if it’s required. The US doesn’t have great relations with Pakistan; it has pretty good relations with the Indian government, but even they’ve got their nose slightly out of joint in recent weeks over the tariffs issue.

In terms of other players, China is very much in Pakistan’s camp and supplies it with lots of its weaponry. Russia is interesting because it used to supply India with its weaponry; it doesn’t do so much now, so maybe Russia could be a mediator. Also, potentially look out for Iran and countries in the Gulf region.

Iran adds to international calls for ‘restraint’

Iran is the latest country to call for restraint as heavy military clashes between India and Pakistan continue.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei “expressed deep concern over the escalating tensions” and urged both countries to “exercise restraint”, according to a statement.

Iran, which borders Pakistan and maintains good relations with India, had offered to mediate last month.

Pakistani defence committee issues ‘strong response’, blames India for attacking hydroelectric facility

Kamal Hyder, Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan

There has been a very strong response (from Pakistan’s National Security Committee).

After an extraordinary meeting of the committee, in which all the military chiefs were present, the prime minister’s office released a statement calling India’s attack an “unprovoked cowardly and unlawful act of war”, consisting of missiles and drones. It said 47 aircraft, many belonging to brotherly countries, were in the air when the Indian attack took place, putting them in harm’s way.

The release also emphatically rejected the Indian allegation that Pakistan was involved in what happened in Pahalgam.

Pakistan also blamed India for attacking a hydroelectric power facility (which brings water from the Neelum River to the Jhelum River), saying this was an act against international law and that Pakistan reserves the right to respond.

India’s defence minister claims attacks did not affect civilians

Rajnath Singh has claimed that India’s overnight attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir did not harm civilians, contradicting Pakistani government claims of civilian casualties.

“We only hit those who killed innocents,” the defence minister was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

“Under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi, our Indian armed forces have made us all proud,” he added.

As we previously reported, Pakistan’s National Security Committee issued a statement accusing India of “unjustified attacks” that “deliberately targeted the civilian areas, on the false pretext of presence of imaginary terrorist camps”.

 Explosions in Indian-administered Kashmir

Video filmed in Indian-administered Kashmir captured loud explosions and smoke around the town of Poonch near the Line of Control as Pakistan promised a “robust response” to a series of Indian air attacks.

Indian-administered Kashmir residents brace for more violence: Local journalist

Al Jazeera has spoken with Kashmir-based journalist Umar Meraj about the situation in the Indian-administered part of the region.

He said that while exchanges of fire along the border have stopped for now, residents remain wary of further escalation they could be “caught in the middle” of.

Concerns are especially high in areas such as Kupwara and Rajouri, which he said previously came under “heavy artillery and mortar fire, leading to civilian deaths”.

At least seven border areas have shuttered all schools and educational institutions amid the tensions, he added.