The night between Tuesday 6 May and Wednesday 7 May (at 01:00 local time), theIndia bombed Pakistan with a series of air raids. As stated by the Government of New Delhi, with theMilitary operation called Sindoor The Indian aviation would have hit nine sites in Pakistan and in the Pakistani Kashmir. The Premier of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif He defined the raids as “cowardly attacks”, adding that “our country has every right to respond by force to this act of war”. Pakistan replied a few hours later with a retaliation against India.
The spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry He also confirmed that at the moment the air raids and artillery exchanges have caused the death of at least 34 people and the injury of about fifty (numbers that will probably increase in the next few hours). India instead made it known that at its side of the de facto border at least 10 people would have been killed and about thirty injuries. All Indian victims are concentrated in the Poonch district, adjacent to the “control line”.
The reasons for the Indian missile attack against Pakistan
The attacks, which took place within 25 minutes (between 01:05 and 01:30, local time), were an answer toterrorist attack That on April 22 caused the death of 26 people (mostly Indian tourists) in Pahalgam, in Indian Kashmir. The government of Nationalist premier Narhendra Modi has accused Pakistan to have supported resistance of the Kashmir, the terrorist group that claimed the attack. Also for this reason, the Indian military operation would have affected only objectives attributable to terrorist groups and not installations of the Pakistani army.
However, it should be remembered that the two powers, both equipped with atomic arsenalshave already clashed several times in the past for the Kashmir control. The first a few months after the partition of India in 1947, reaching a ceased the fire mediated by the UN in 1949. Other clashes occurred in 1965, in 1971 in a war that led to the creation of the State of Bangladesh and in 1999. The administration of the Prime Minister Modi hit Pakistan with attacks such as that of these hours as early as 2016 – as a retaliation for the attack of a terrorist group at a base of the army base Indian in Uri, Kashmir, which caused the death of 20 soldiers – and in 2019, following the attack of Pulwama in which 40 Indian paramilitaries lost their lives.
The reaction of Pakistan
The government of Pakistan has communicated that the Indian military aviation raids hit Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani Kashmir, the town of Bagh and the city of Muridke, in Punjab Pakistano. Following the bombings, several were also exchanged Artillery strokes between Pakistani and Indian Armed Forces In several points of the “control line”, the De facto border that divides the Kashmir region divided between Pakistan and India in two. The Islamabad government has also claimed the demolition of five Indian planes: according to the statements of Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary, spokesperson for the armed forces of Pakistan, it would be three French production hunting hunting, one Su-30 and a Mig-29 (Russian production), as well as a Heron drone (products and sold to India by Israel). India has not yet confirmed or denied the demolition of its means.
Risk of escalation?
As experts point out, it is not easy to understand if the exchange of attacks of these hours is the first phase of a future conflict between India and Pakistan or not. As the Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah said shortly after attacks:
The Modi government is determined to respond adequately to any attack on India and its people. Bharat (the name of Hindi in Hindi very dear to Hindu nationalism) is strongly engaged in summer terrorism from the roots.
The hope is that air raids and shots along the “control line” are only one demonstration of strength of the two governments For the benefit of the most intransigent wing of their respective public opinions.
