Live Updates Pakistan vows retaliation after India launches strikes in wake of Kashmir massacre

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Pakistan vows retaliation after India launches strikes in wake of Kashmir massacre

By Aishwarya S. Iyer, Sophia Saifi, Rhea Mogul, Aditi Sangal, Helen Regan and Jessie Yeung, CNN

Updated 1:24 AM EDT, Thu May 8, 2025

India strikes Pakistan in major escalation over Kashmir violence

02:41

What we're covering

• Potential for wider conflict: Pakistan’s prime minister condemned India’s strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Wednesday and vowed to respond with “decisive action.”

• What happens next: The nature of that response may decide whether the rival neighbors are able to find an off-ramp or become locked in an escalating confrontation.

• Deadly attacks: A Pakistani military official said at least 31 civilians were killed in what India dubbed “Operation Sindoor,” which New Delhi said targeted “terrorist infrastructure.” On the Indian side of the de facto border that divides Kashmir, cross-border Pakistani shelling killed at least 12 people, a senior Indian defense source said.

• Tourist massacre: The escalation in conflict comes after militants killed more than two dozen civilians, mostly tourists, in Indian-controlled Kashmir last month. India accused Pakistan of being involved, which it denied.

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33 min ago

In Indian-administered Kashmir, residents are tense after overnight shelling and evacuations

From CNN’s Mukhtar Ahmad, Aishwarya S Iyer and Jessie Yeung

Residents in Indian-administered Kashmir described feeling confused and tense after another night of cross-border shelling by Pakistani forces, with some ordered to evacuate.

One person living in the Karnah area, close to the Line of Control that divides the contested Kashmir region, said their house had been damaged by shelling and that the firing remained “heavy” into Wednesday night.

“We had to leave. For safety, we have shifted out of the area and moved to Srinagar,” said the resident, whom CNN is not naming. “We will wait till the situation improves before we go back.”

Srinagar is the biggest city in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A 21-year-old student said their family had spent Wednesday night in an underground cement bunker with no beds or fans. Women and children from six or seven families were sent into the bunker to protect them from shelling, while other family members stayed in the back rooms of their houses, the student said.

“We are scared but still in the village,” they said. “This is our home, it does not feel right to leave it.”

Another resident living close to Kupwara town near the border said he heard shelling from around 4:30 to 5 a.m. today.

“It was less intense than yesterday, and it has not caused as much panic,” said the 30-year-old, who asked not to be named. “Since Pakistan has said they will retaliate, people are discussing that maybe something will happen tonight.”

The Kupwara resident said people were going about daily life – though children are staying home as schools are shut. They said there is a lack of reliable information leaving people to talk among themselves to try and make sense of what happened.

While Kashmir is one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints, this latest escalation follows years of relative calm.

“There have been many times my village has also been evacuated. So, Kashmiris have a higher potential for tensions than most,” the Kupwara resident told CNN.

Residents of Pakistan-administered Kashmir also said they were forced to flee their homes and take shelter.

48 min ago

Analysis: Why isn’t the US leading efforts to lower tensions between India and Pakistan?

From CNN's Stephen Collinson

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The violent crisis between India and Pakistan is exactly the kind of international emergency that would once have prompted a full-on US diplomatic drive to cool tempers and head off a wider war.

But this latest fighting over and beyond Kashmir, the disputed Muslim-majority region, may become a test of the Trump administration’s bandwidth and limited aspirations for global convening — and for the world without American leadership.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered a passive initial response to the fighting. On Wednesday, he went a little further, offering his good offices without showing much enthusiasm for becoming involved: “If I can do anything to help, I will be there,” Trump said.

But there’s no indication so far of a broadening US effort to coordinate international mediation or crisis management.

This may be partly because the time is not yet ripe for diplomacy, since everybody expects several steps up an escalatory ladder by both sides. While Pakistan’s claim to have shot down five Indian planes may suggest its honor is satisfied, its leaders have pledged to hit back at Indian military facilities.

The US response will be closely watched in the coming days because the second Trump administration has thrown away the US foreign policy playbook, leaving a vacuum where US multinational leadership once operated.

Read the full analysis here.

44 min ago

What to know about the Islamist militant groups India says it targeted in its strikes on Pakistan

From CNN’s Aditi Sangal

Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar, left, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba leader Hafiz Saeed.

Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar, left, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba leader Hafiz Saeed. AP/Getty Images

The two militant groups India said it targeted in its Wednesday strikes on Pakistan are declared as terror groups by many countries and have been accused of launching several massive and deadly attacks on neighboring India. They are Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), two extremist groups based in Pakistan.

India said it launched the strikes in response to a massacre of tourists in India-administered Kashmir that it blamed on Pakistan. Pakistan has denied any involvement and said it has long battled terror groups.

Here’s what to know about the two Islamist groups:

Jaish-e-Mohammed, which translates to the Army of the Prophet Mohammed, is a Pakistan-based extremist group that operates across Kashmir, and seeks to unite the Indian-administered area of the disputed state with Pakistan. The US and the UN Security Council listed JeM as a terrorist organization in 2001. JeM is “based in Peshawar and Muzaffarabad, Pakistan,” the UN Security Council noted. Muzaffarabad was one of the locations hit by India’s strikes.

Its leader, Masood Azhar, founded the group after he was released from prison in India in 1999 in exchange for 155 hostages held on an Indian Airlines flight that had been hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Security Council.

He formed JeM with support from Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and several other extremist organizations.

Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which translates to Army of the Pure, is also a Pakistan-based organization with the same goal of uniting Indian-administered Kashmir with Pakistan.

The UN Security Council says it is linked to Al-Qaeda and “conducted numerous terrorist operations against military and civilian targets since 1993, including the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, which killed approximately 164 persons and injured hundreds more.”

Lashkar’s leader Hafiz Saeed has been based in Pakistan for years and been in and out of Pakistani custody.

1 hr 5 min ago

Two drones shot down over Pakistani city of Lahore, source says

From Azaz Syed and Lex Harvey

Police in Lahore said two drones were shot down over the Pakistani city on Thursday, a police official who asked for anonymity told CNN, a day after India launched deadly strikes on its neighbor.

The source did not say what kind of drones they were, nor where they had come from. Officials were “examining the details about these machines” and looking into where they came from and who they belonged to, the source said.

Lahore is roughly 13 miles from the Indian border and is home to around 13 million people.

The drones came within range of a jamming system — which interferes with the signal drones use to communicate with their operators, sometimes causing them to fall — the source said.

CNN has not independently verified the claims.

Pakistan’s Airport Authority announced on Thursday that Lahore’s airport would remain non-operational until at least 12 p.m. local time, without giving a reason.

1 hr 13 min ago

India embassy in China calls reports of downed jets "disinformation" as rest of Indian government stays silent

From CNN’s Jessie Yeung

The Indian embassy in Beijing has pushed back on reports that Pakistan shot down Indian Air Force fighter jets – seemingly the first response by Indian officials to Islamabad’s claims.

Responding on X to an article by Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times, the Indian embassy wrote: “We would recommend you verify your facts and cross-examine your sources before pushing out this kind of disinformation.”

The embassy account also highlighted what it said were misleading photos circulating online that purportedly showed the crashed jets – claiming they were old photos from unrelated incidents in 2021 and 2024.

It’s unclear whether the embassy is denying Pakistan’s claims altogether.

The embassy’s statement is in stark contrast to the silence from the rest of India’s government and military on the matter.

For context: On Wednesday, Pakistan said it shot down five Indian jets, including three French-made Rafale fighters. A high-ranking French intelligence official later told CNN that Pakistan had downed one Rafale, and that French authorities were looking into whether more than one was brought down.

CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

China’s position: India and China have long had fraught relations, with several clashes over the years regarding their contested border. But China has recently been trying to improve relations with India as part of a broader diplomatic push to shore up ties with neighbors and trade partners alike to counter pressure from the Trump administration.

Pakistan, however, is one of China’s closest partners and main arms supplier, with Chinese arms making up 81% of Pakistan’s weapons imports in the past five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.. On Wednesday, China urged both sides to de-escalate, saying it “expressed regret over India’s military action against Pakistan.”

1 hr 33 min ago

Analysis: The fog of war hovers over Pakistan and India’s aerial clash

From CNN's Brad Lendon, Senior Global Military Affairs Reporter

People look at the debris of an aircraft in Wuyan, India-administered Kashmir, on Wednesday. CNN cannot independently verify who the aircraft belonged to or what brought it down.

People look at the debris of an aircraft in Wuyan, India-administered Kashmir, on Wednesday. CNN cannot independently verify who the aircraft belonged to or what brought it down. Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images

A day after India launched airstrikes on what it claimed were “terrorist” sites inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the fog of war still hangs over much of the battle.

Pakistan’s leaders are touting a great victory by the country’s air force, saying five Indian fighter jets were shot down during an hour-long battle fought at ranges over 160 kilometers (100 miles).

India’s leaders are saying little in response to those Pakistani claims, though they say their attacks successfully hit multiple intended “terrorist” targets and showed what they said was video evidence of many of those strikes.

India has not acknowledged any aircraft losses, and the Pakistanis have yet to show any evidence proving they downed fighter jets. But a French Defense Ministry source said at least one of India’s newest and most-advanced warplanes – a French-made Rafale fighter jet – was lost in the battle.

Military analysts are cautious, noting Pakistan’s claims have not been confirmed. But India is also not refuting them.

A local resident and government official told CNN that an unidentified fighter aircraft had crashed on a school building in Indian-administered Kashmir, and photos published by AFP news agency showed aircraft wreckage lying in a field. But it was not immediately clear from the pictures of the wreckage who the aircraft belonged to and what brought it down.

CNN cannot independently verify the claim.

A bulldozer carries the aircraft debris in Wuyan.

A bulldozer carries the aircraft debris in Wuyan. Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images

Some other claims of aircraft wreckage on the ground across the battlefield circulating on social media have been debunked as from old encounters, or not even from the region.

Pakistan’s latest claims certainly come with a bit of hyperbole.

A Pakistani source told CNN’s Nic Robertson dozens of fighter jets engaged in a “dogfight,” the likes of which have not been seen in the jet age.

Pakistan’s defense minister, gave a similar account, telling CNN: “These planes were downed in a dogfight. Missiles were fired by our planes, and they were shot down. Very simple.”

The term “dogfight” evokes “Top Gun” movie theatrics of fighters in close contact, swerving, diving and climbing to get out of missile lock from their adversaries.

The fight the Pakistan sources describe is far from that and more a long-range missile battle.

Modern jets are equipped with standoff missiles that can hit both ground and air targets from some 100 miles (160 kilometers) away in many cases, without ever having any visual contact with those targets.

Additionally, both Pakistan and India are equipped with sophisticated long-range surface-to-air missiles that could be fired well into the other’s territory to thwart any oncoming attack.

Pakistan’s claims of a stout air defense system defeating India will be somewhat undermined if the videos India showed at a briefing on Wednesday are authentic.

What’s likely is that pieces of the claims of both sides are true – India lost aircraft and Pakistan saw it defenses breached.

2 hr 18 min ago

21 airports across northern India will be closed until Saturday

From CNN’s Manveena Suri

Police guard the road to the Shri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, on Wednesday.

Police guard the road to the Shri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, on Wednesday. Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

A total of 21 airports across northern and northwestern India will remain closed until Saturday, according to a senior police official.

“All airports have been sealed. No one will be allowed to go in or out except for security personnel and staff,” Shri Sirivennela of Amritsar Police told Indian news agency ANI, adding that “all scheduled flights” in the region will be impacted.

“Until the situation is under control, we will be following the decisions made by the central government,” Sirivennela told ANI.

Multiple Indian and international carriers issued travel advisories on Wednesday regarding cancellations to and from destinations in northern India, after New Delhi launched strikes on Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on Wednesday morning.

Other airlines said they were re-routing or canceling flights to and from Europe due to the escalation between India and Pakistan, with more than two dozen international flights diverted to avoid Pakistan airspace, according to FlightRadar24 data.

Late on Wednesday night (Thursday morning local time), Reuters reported that Pakistan had reopened its airspace and that its airports were fully functional.

2 hr 30 min ago

India and Pakistan fire shells across de facto border in Kashmir

From CNN’s Mukhtar Ahmad and Jessie Yeung

India and Pakistan fired shells at each other over their de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region on Wednesday night, according to a statement from the Indian defense spokesperson in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The Pakistani army had fired “small arms and artillery guns” across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, to which the Indian army “responded proportionately,” said Lt. Col. Suneel Bartwal, India’s defense spokesperson in Jammu.

The two countries’ militaries have been exchanging gunfire across the Line of Control nearly every day since the massacre in April at the heart of this escalation. Gunmen stormed a scenic spot in Indian-administered Kashmir and killed 26 civilians, mostly Indian tourists.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Indian defense source told CNN that overnight shelling by the Pakistani military across the Line of Control had killed 12 civilians and injured 57.

2 hr 49 min ago

Analysis: What happens now between India and Pakistan depends on Islamabad’s next move

From CNN’s Aditi Sangal

People watch as Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addresses the nation, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday.

People watch as Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addresses the nation, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to respond to India’s strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir that were carried out in the early hours of Wednesday local time.

What that response entails may well decide whether the two countries are able to find an off-ramp or become locked into an escalating confrontation.

One option for Pakistan is to claim victory, pointing to the jets it claims to have downed. This option depends on the truth of Pakistan’s claims that it has downed five Indian Air Force planes, including three French-made Rafale fighter jets.

If there have indeed been losses for India, “Pakistan could claim victory by pointing to the downed assets, even if the circumstances are murky. This would allow Pakistan to claim it has imposed costs on Indian military targets,” said Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A second option is to carry out strikes of its own. Pakistan might decide it wants to “respond in kind” because some of India’s strikes hit the densely populated province of Punjab in Pakistan, said Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution.

Or Pakistani Army Chief Syed Asim Munir, who is reputed to be “more assertive” than his predecessor Qamar Javed Bajwa was in 2019 when India and Pakistan last clashed, may decide he wants to “up the ante,” said Madan.

However, given India’s messaging has been that it will retaliate if Pakistan’s next move goes too far, Islamabad could decide to keep any response “below a certain threshold,” Madan said.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said Islamabad will only hit military targets in India, not civilian.

The latest statements from Pakistan suggested it is thinking of a measured response, Madan said, adding however, that no possibilities can be ruled out.

“Largely on the basis of what we’ve seen in previous times, these are two rational actors who don’t want a broader war. Both have something to lose if there is a broader conflict,” she said.

3 hr 1 min ago

Pakistan reopens airspace after closure prompted by India strikes

From CNN’s Jessie Yeung

Pakistan has reopened its airspace after closing it following India’s missile strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Reuters reported.

The country’s airports are now “fully functional,” according to Reuters, citing Pakistan authorities.

On Thursday morning, flight tracker website FlightRadar24 showed some passenger planes flying over Pakistan again – though most flights are still steering clear of the Pakistan-India border.

Some context: Pakistan closed airspace around Lahore and the coastal city of Karachi on Wednesday morning after India launched a series of early morning strikes on locations in the country’s north. There were major flight disruptions, with India also closing some of its airports near the border region and multiple international airlines avoiding flying over Pakistan.

2 hr 51 min ago

Will Pakistan and India avoid escalation? Here's what we know

From CNN Staff

A man stands on the debris of a destroyed building at the Government Health and Educational complex in Muridke, Pakistan, on Wednesday.

A man stands on the debris of a destroyed building at the Government Health and Educational complex in Muridke, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Farooq Naeem/AFP/Getty Images

India launched strikes on what it said were “terrorist” targets in both Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir yesterday in response to a deadly militant attack on mainly Indian tourists last month.

Pakistan has vowed to respond: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tasked his country’s military to enact “self-defense” with “corresponding actions.”

Questions now turn to what Pakistan’s response will be. How Islamabad chooses to act may well decide whether the two countries are able to find an off-ramp or become locked into an escalating confrontation.

Here’s what else to know:

Defense minister speaks: Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Asif has warned that India’s strikes marked an “invitation to expand the conflict” between the neighbors — but cautioned that Islamabad is “trying to avoid” a full-fledged war. Pakistan will only hit military targets in India, not civilian, he said.

India’s message: India is urging other countries, including the US, to tell Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism, an official government source said, an accusation Pakistan denies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has not spoken publicly since the strikes, chaired a high-level meeting with senior ministers.

Casualties: The death toll in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir has risen to 31, with 57 wounded, a military official said. And overnight shelling by the Pakistani military on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir killed 12 civilians and wounded 57, an Indian defense source told CNN. India and Pakistan have had near-daily exchanges of fire across their disputed border since the April massacre.

Downed jets: Prime Minister Sharif lauded his country’s air force following a claim by military sources that it shot down five Indian fighter jets. Indian officials are yet to respond to the claim. But a high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN that Pakistan downed one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force, in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat.

Fighter jet battle: A senior Pakistani security source told CNN that a battle between Pakistani and Indian fighter jets was one of the “largest and longest in recent aviation history.” A total of 125 fighter jets battled for over an hour, with neither side leaving its own airspace, according to the source. CNN cannot independently verify the claim.

Militant groups: India said it targeted “terrorist infrastructure” belonging to two militant groups – Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Masood Azhar, the leader of JeM, said 10 of his relatives, including five children, were killed by the attack. JeM is a Pakistan-based group that operates across Kashmir and seeks to unite the Indian-administered area of the disputed state with Pakistan.

Why the strikes matter: India’s military operation was a major escalation between the South Asian neighbors, and was the deepest New Delhi has struck inside Pakistan since the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, the biggest of several wars between the two countries.

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