India led the strikes in Pakistan on Tuesday to Wednesday to Pakistan, which retaliated with artillery fire in cashmere, bringing a new level crossing in the climbing between the two nuclear powers.
• Read also: India announces that it will “cut the water” of the rivers that irrigate Pakistan
• Read also: India-Pakistan tensions: Islamabad is testing a 2nd missile, Iranian mediation
• Read also: Why could a new war break up between India and Pakistan?
During the night, AFP journalists heard enormous explosions near Srinagar, the big city in cashmere administered by India, not far from the HQ of the Indian army for the area.
According to the spokesperson for the Pakistani army, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Chaudhry, eight civilians, including “a three-year-old girl”, were killed in “24 strikes” Indian on “six places” in Pakistan.
He reported early Wednesday by 35 injured and two missing.
AFP
India has said it “struck terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan (…), hence the terrorist attacks against India were organized and directed”. She said she had kept the United States informed of these operations.
This new escalation between the two neighbors, rivals since their partition in pain in 1947, was triggered by an attack which caused a shock in India.
“Riposte started”
On April 22, armed men killed 26 men in the part of the cashmere administered by India. Immediately after this attack, never claimed, New Delhi accused Islamabad. Pakistan denies.
But the Indian police provide at least two Pakistani nationals among the attackers and their accomplices and ensures that they are linked to the Let, the jihadist movement Lashkar-E-Taiba based in Pakistan, already suspected of the attacks which had killed 166 people in Bombay in 2008.
One of the sites targeted during the night by the Indian army is the Subhan mosque in Bahawalpur, in the Pakistani pendjab, linked according to Indian intelligence to groups close to the Let, notably the Jaish-e-Mohammed (Jem).
AFP
Immediately, the government of this province, where almost half of the 240 million Pakistanis live, announced to close all its schools on Wednesday.
Shortly after these strikes, cashmere has ignited, AFP journalists in the disputed area report explosions that are now closer and closer.
“Riposte began and if God wants it, it will increase (…) It will not take much time to solve the problem,” threatened in an interview with AFP the Pakistani Minister of Defense, Khawaja Asif. The Pakistani national security committee, a body only convened for extreme situations, will meet in the morning.
-“The world cannot afford a military confrontation” between India and Pakistan, tried to plead the UN, while the two neighbors have continued to assert their “right to defend themselves” for two weeks.
AFP
The Indian army said that Pakistan had made artillery fire on its territory, accusing it “once again (of having) violated the cease-fire agreement (…) in the sectors of Bhimber Gali and Poonch-Rajauri”, in the Indian cashmere. She added “properly retaliated and calibrated”.
In the midst of these announcements, American president Donald Trump said hoped that clashes between India and Pakistan “stop very quickly”.
“No Pakistani military installation has been targeted,” said New Delhi, believing to show “considerable restraint” to “avoid climbing”.
“We thus keep our commitment to ensure that the officials of this attack (April 22) are accountable,” continued the Hindu ultra -nationalist government of Narendra Modi.
“After the attack on Pahalgam, the Indian government once again used the excuse for terrorism for (…) endangering regional peace and security,” accused Pakistani diplomacy. “The irresponsible action of India brings the two nuclear states closer to a major conflict”.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif added: “Pakistan reserves absolute right to respond decisively to this uninsured Indian attack – a resolved response is already underway”.
Water war
Shortly before these strikes, the US State Department had said that it had called India and Pakistan to work for a “responsible resolution” of their dispute.
New Delhi had just threatened to “cut the water” which irrigated Pakistan, in retaliation for the murderous attack on April 22.
The next day, India had suspended its participation in a water sharing treaty signed in 1960 with its neighbor.
Many experts and populations fear a military confrontation between the two nuclear powers, which have already delivered several wars.
AFP
For the past ten nights, Indian and Pakistani soldiers have exchanged light weapons along the border that separates their countries. Without having victims for the moment, according to New Delhi.
In recent days, Pakistan has for its part proceeded to two soil-to-ground missile tests. The one led on Saturday concerned a machine with a range of 450 kilometers, the distance between the Pakistani border from the Indian capital New Delhi.
India must precisely carry out civil defense exercises on Wednesday, according to their Ministry of Information Wednesday, to prepare the population to “protect themselves in the event of an attack”.
And New Delhi will receive the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, who was in Islamabad on Wednesday for mediation on Wednesday.
