India launched missiles at neighbor and rival Pakistan on Wednesday, dramatically escalating tensions between the nuclear powers two weeks after a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people.
Calling them an “act of war,” Pakistan said the strikes, which according to India hit nine locations across the Pakistani province of Punjab and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killed 26 people and injured 46 others. Among the dead were six people killed at two mosques and two teenagers who were killed elsewhere, Pakistani officials said.
India said the strikes hit only “terror camps” and no civilian or military targets. It said it had exercised “considerable restraint” in its target selection.
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“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature,” the Indian defense ministry said in a statement.
Several buildings were on fire after the strikes, which caused power outages in various locations, videos posted on social media and verified by NBC News showed. Some of the injured were being taken to hospital in ambulances, and in another video, a loud hissing sound can be heard before a blast hits a few feet away from a crowd of bicyclists.
India blames Pakistan for the massacre last month of 26 civilians, mostly tourists, in the Indian part of Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region that both India and Pakistan claim in its entirety. Pakistan, which India has long accused of supporting cross-border terrorism, denies involvement and has called for a “neutral” investigation into the April 22 attack, the deadliest against Indian civilians in almost two decades.
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“It was expected that Pakistan would take action against terrorists and the infrastructure that supports them,” the Indian Embassy in Washington said in a statement. “Instead, during the fortnight that has gone by, Pakistan has indulged in denial and made allegations of false flag operations against India.”