Nuclear-armed Pakistan ‘green lights’ military retaliation against India and starts moving tanks into position as world holds its breath for war
Pakistan has vowed to strike back against India, warning it reserves the right to respond to overnight missile strikes at a ‘time, place and manner of its choosing’.
Islamabad deemed India’s assault an ‘act of war’ that it claims deliberately targeted civilian areas, killing at least 31 people and injuring 57 more – an allegation roundly denied by New Delhi.
As Pakistan moved tanks near Kashmir on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the armed forces had been authorised to undertake ‘corresponding actions’.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Pakistan will only hit military targets in India, telling Pakistani news channel Geo News: ‘We will never target civilians’.
‘We will abide by international law. We will contain this international confrontation to military targets only,’ he added.
Meanwhile, India told more than a dozen foreign envoys in New Delhi that ‘if Pakistan responds, India will respond,’ fuelling fears of a larger military conflict in one of the world’s most dangerous – and most populated – nuclear flashpoint regions.
Residents living around the de facto border fled today after India launched attacks on what it said was nine ‘terror camps’ inside Pakistan overnight.
Both nuclear-armed countries subsequently exchanged artillery fire. Pakistan said five were killed in shelling near the Line of Control, and India said at least seven were killed their side.
As the smoke subsided, the Indian army this morning said it had been proportionate in its actions, ‘focused, measured and non-escalatory’.
But Pakistan’s National Security Committee, chaired by the prime minister, said the strikes had been carried out on a ‘false pretext’ of the ‘imaginary terrorist camps’.
Tanks are transported on a road in Muridke near Lahore, Pakistan, May 7, 2025
India fired missiles across the border into nine Pakistani ‘terror camps’ in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir early Wednesday
No military facilities were targeted in the strikes
India says it was attacking bases used by those it blames for an attack on the Indian-run side of Kashmir last month – the worst massacre of civilians in India since 2008.
Commenting on the conflict, US President Donald Trump told reporters at the Oval Office today: ‘I know both very well. I want to see them work it out’.
‘I want to see them stop’.
‘If I can do anything to help, I will be there’, the president added.
