India launches attack on 9 sites in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir

ISLAMABAD – India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier on May 7, after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival, in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours in two decades.

At least 38 deaths were reported, with Islamabad saying 26 civilians were killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, and New Delhi adding at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling.

The fighting came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir, which Pakistan denied.

The South Asian neighbours have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.

The Indian army said “justice is served”, reporting nine “terrorist camps” had been destroyed, with New Delhi adding that its actions “have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.

Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to “shore up” his domestic popularity, adding that Islamabad “won’t take long to settle the score”.

Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said five Indian jets had been downed across the border overnight.

An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, said three of its fighter jets had crashed on home territory.

Children among the dead

The largest Indian strike was on an Islamic seminary near the Punjabi city of Bahawalpur, killing 13 people according to the Pakistan military.

A government health and education complex in Muridke, 30 km from Lahore, was blown apart, along with a mosque in Muzaffarabad – the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir – killing its caretaker.

Four children were among those killed in May 7’s attacks, according to the Pakistan military.

Pakistan also said a hydropower plant in Kashmir