Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided on Wednesday over a National Security Committee meeting, whose participants condemned the “illegal acts” of India, describing them as “blatant violations of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which manifestly constituted acts of war under international law”.
“The deliberate targeting of civilians, including innocent women and children, by the Indian military constitutes a heinous and shameful crime, that is in violation of all norms of human behaviour and the provisions of international law,” a committee statement read.
Earlier, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif also declared that Islamabad “won’t take long to settle the score” and stated that military operations were already under way.
India launched a massive military bombardment overnight called “Operation Sindoor”, striking nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least 26 people. In response, Pakistan said it struck Indian military targets and claimed to have shot down several warplanes, resulting in at least 10 deaths.
Residents of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said they fled their homes and ran into surrounding hills as India launched air attacks on part of the city.
“The whole house moved. Everyone got scared, we all evacuated, took our kids and went up [into the hills],” Muhammad Shair Mir, 46, told Reuters news agency.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stressed on Wednesday that New Delhi carried out the strikes after its intelligence monitoring showed that “further attacks against India were impending”.
“Therefore, it was necessary to take preemptive and precautionary strikes,” he noted during a joint news conference with top Indian military commanders.
The military added that it targeted “terrorist camps” that served as recruitment centres, launchpads, and indoctrination centres, and sites housing weapons and training facilities.
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” it stated.
The strikes followed an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir in March, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-backed armed groups.
In New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the latest deadly exchange.
Modi had cancelled his trip to Europe after the fighting broke out. He has yet to respond to allegations by Pakistan that he carried out the attacks to “shore up” domestic support.
While India insisted that the attacks only targeted armed groups, Pakistan claimed that many of those who were killed and wounded were civilians, including four children.
In Punjab, the Pakistani military also claimed that Indian missiles hit a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur, killing a child and wounding two other people.
Al Jazeera’s reporter from Islamabad said that in response to the Indian strikes, Pakistan’s air force has launched retaliatory operations and claimed to have downed Indian military aircraft, including a Sukhoi and MiG jets.
“The Pakistani air force said that its jet fighters have not crossed into Indian airspace during the operation, and they said that all its aircraft have returned to base unharmed.”
There was no immediate response from the Indian military about the strikes, Hyder added.
Funeral rites are set to begin for those killed in the Indian attacks, which targeted cities Muzaffarabad and Kotli, both in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Earlier, Hyder also reported that heavy shelling had resumed on the Line of Control that separates Pakistan-administered Kashmir from Indian-administered Kashmir.
“The escalation is something that everyone is watching to see … what Pakistan’s next reaction would be,” he added.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, former Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar blamed India for the “unprovoked and unsubstantiated” attack against her country, adding that New Delhi is “playing with fire”.
Khar said that Islamabad has been “warning the world” about India’s “lack of adherence to international law” regarding the situation in Kashmir.
“Now it has upped the ante of being the aggressor and operating with impunity,” she added.
Diplomats have piled pressure on leaders of both countries to step back.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.