India launched missile and air strikes against sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir early on May 7, 2025, sharply escalating tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors after the April 22 militant attack near Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people.
New Delhi called the military action Operation Sindoor and said it targeted nine sites associated with militant infrastructure. Pakistan rejected India's characterization of the targets, said civilian areas and religious buildings had been hit, and condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty.
The competing accounts were difficult to independently verify in the immediate aftermath. India said it had deliberately avoided Pakistani military facilities during its initial operation, while Pakistan reported civilian casualties and said its armed forces had shot down Indian aircraft. India did not initially confirm those aircraft-loss claims.
Where did India strike?
India said nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir were targeted during the overnight operation. According to New Delhi, the locations were infrastructure associated with militant organizations and had been used to plan or direct attacks.
Among the locations hit were areas around Bahawalpur and Muridke in Pakistan's Punjab province, as well as sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Reuters reported significant damage at facilities in Bahawalpur and Muridke that India associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba respectively.
Pakistan disputed India's description of the operation. Its National Security Committee said strikes hit locations including Bahawalpur, Muridke, Sialkot, Shakargarh, Kotli and Muzaffarabad and caused civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure. Islamabad rejected India's claim that the operation had been confined to militant infrastructure.
Those differences are important: the occurrence of strikes at multiple locations was clear, but the military purpose and status of every structure hit were not independently established in the first hours of the confrontation.
What triggered Operation Sindoor?
The immediate backdrop was the April 22 attack in the Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam, a major tourist destination in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Gunmen killed 26 people, including 25 Indian nationals and one Nepali national.
The killings triggered a major Indian security operation and a rapid deterioration in India-Pakistan relations. India accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border militant activity and said Pakistani nationals were among the attackers. Islamabad denied involvement and called for an independent investigation.
In the days after the attack, the two governments imposed a series of diplomatic and economic measures against one another. India placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, downgraded diplomatic ties and introduced restrictions affecting Pakistani nationals. Pakistan announced retaliatory measures, including closing its airspace to Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines.
Cross-border firing along the Line of Control also increased before India's May 7 strikes.
What was known about the Pahalgam attackers?
At the time Operation Sindoor began, responsibility for the Pahalgam attack remained a central point of dispute between India and Pakistan. Indian authorities said evidence pointed toward Pakistan-based militants, while Pakistan rejected allegations that it had supported or directed the attack.
Later developments added important context without eliminating that political dispute. In July 2025, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah told parliament that security forces had killed three men whom Indian authorities identified as the gunmen responsible for the Pahalgam attack. India said the men were Pakistani nationals and cited forensic and other investigative evidence. Pakistan continued to reject Indian accusations connecting the Pakistani state to the attack.
In December 2025, India's National Investigation Agency filed charges against Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, its offshoot The Resistance Front, and six individuals over the attack. Those charges represent the findings and allegations of Indian investigators; they do not constitute an independently adjudicated finding of Pakistani state responsibility.
How did Pakistan respond?
Pakistan's government described the May 7 strikes as an act of aggression and said its armed forces had been authorized to respond in self-defense. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the attack would not go unanswered.
Pakistan's military also claimed it had downed five Indian fighter aircraft. India did not confirm that figure. Reuters reported on May 7 that three fighter aircraft had crashed in Indian-administered Kashmir, without independently establishing that all had been shot down by Pakistan.
Later, India's Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, acknowledged that India had lost aircraft during the opening phase of the conflict but rejected Pakistan's claim that six Indian jets had been destroyed. He did not publicly provide a total number of Indian aircraft lost.
The confrontation expanded after the initial strikes
Operation Sindoor did not end with the May 7 attack. During the following days, India and Pakistan exchanged artillery fire, drones, missiles and additional strikes, while each government accused the other of escalating the confrontation.
India's May 9 official briefing said Pakistani forces had attempted drone incursions at dozens of locations and fired heavy-caliber weapons across the Line of Control. India said it responded against Pakistani air-defense positions. Pakistan disputed important parts of India's account and said its own military actions were responses to Indian attacks.
Pakistan subsequently launched an operation it called Bunyan-ul-Marsoos. Both countries reported attacks on military targets, while civilian communities near the border and Line of Control were also affected by the fighting.
On May 10, after four days of the most intense India-Pakistan military confrontation in decades, the two sides reached an understanding to stop military action. Pakistan publicly described it as a ceasefire understanding. India said the arrangement resulted from direct contact between the countries' Directors General of Military Operations. The two governments later offered differing accounts of the role played by the United States and other outside diplomacy in bringing the fighting to a halt.
Why Kashmir remains at the center of India-Pakistan tensions
Kashmir has been disputed since British India was partitioned in 1947. India and Pakistan each administer parts of the territory while claiming it in full. The Line of Control separates the areas administered by the two countries but is not an internationally recognized border between them.
The dispute has contributed to repeated wars, military crises and periods of cross-border violence. An armed insurgency against Indian rule began in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1989, and militant attacks have repeatedly brought India and Pakistan close to wider conflict.
In 2016, after militants killed 19 Indian soldiers at an army base in Uri, India said its forces carried out what it called “surgical strikes†against militant launch sites across the Line of Control.
A still larger crisis followed the February 2019 suicide bombing in Pulwama that killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel. India carried out an airstrike near Balakot in Pakistan, Pakistan responded with an air operation, and the two countries fought an aerial engagement in which an Indian MiG-21 was shot down and its pilot captured before Pakistan released him.
The May 2025 confrontation went considerably further, involving strikes, drones, missiles and attacks on military infrastructure over several days before the two governments stopped the fighting.
Why the May 2025 crisis mattered
The initial May 7 strikes represented a significant escalation because India attacked locations not only in Pakistan-administered Kashmir but also deeper inside Pakistan. The subsequent exchanges demonstrated how quickly a militant attack and competing accusations could develop into direct military confrontation between two nuclear-armed states.
International governments and organizations repeatedly urged restraint during the crisis. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned against a military confrontation and called for maximum restraint, while several governments engaged diplomatically with both New Delhi and Islamabad.
The fighting stopped on May 10, but the fundamental disputes that preceded it—including Kashmir, cross-border militancy and competing allegations over responsibility for attacks—remained unresolved.
0 Comments