May 7, 2025 India launches attacks on Pakistan after Kashmir massacre

Our live coverage of the conflict between India and Pakistan has moved here.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif delivers a statement during the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 13, 2024.

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.

The “dog fight” between Pakistani and Indian fighter jets, which Pakistani officials say downed five Indian planes, was one of the “largest and longest in recent aviation history,” a senior Pakistani security source told CNN.

A total of 125 fighter jets battled for over an hour, with neither side leaving its own airspace, according to the source who detailed that the missile exchanges were happening at distances sometimes greater than 160 kilometers (100 miles).

Neither side was prepared to send their pilots over the border because of a much smaller dogfight in 2019. An Indian Air Force pilot was shot down on Pakistani territory and paraded on TV before being returned to India. A humiliation, he said, neither side wanted this time.

At times, the Indian Air Force had to take multiple runs at targets, according to the source. Pakistan did its best to warn civilians in areas it believed to be potential targets, the source said, and that the military was able to minimize civilian casualties.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai attends an international summit on 'Girls' Education in Muslim Communities', in Islamabad on January 11.

Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has called on Pakistan and India to de-escalate tensions.

She expressed her condolences to the loved ones of victims on both sides of the border and urged the international community to push for dialogue and diplomacy.

“I am thinking of all my friends and family – and all the educators, advocates and girls we work with – in Pakistan during this dangerous time,” she said, adding that peace is “the only way forward for our collective security and prosperity.”

Remember: In October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban while riding a bus home from school. In the days that followed the attack, the then-teenager was airlifted to hospital in Birmingham, England, for life-saving surgery. Now based in Britain, the activist has since devoted her working life to campaigning for educational rights for girls and women around the world under the umbrella of the international non-profit organization the Malala Fund.

India launched a military operation on Pakistan in the early hours of yesterday morning, and Pakistan claimed it shot down five Indian Air Force jets in response, in a major escalation between the South Asian neighbors and in response to April’s massacre on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India said it targeted “terrorist infrastructure” belonging to two militant groups – Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). At a press conference, officials showed a map marking locations of what they said were several training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and inside Pakistan’s Punjab province. Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri again blamed Pakistan for the April attack and accused Islamabad of supporting “terrorism” in the disputed region, which the neighbor has denied.

Masood Azhar, the leader of JeM, said 10 of his relatives, including five children, were killed by the attack. JeM, which translates to the Army of the Prophet Mohammed, is a Pakistan-based group that operates across Kashmir, and seeks to unite the Indian-administered area of the disputed state with Pakistan. While the US and the UN Security Council listed JeM as a terrorist organization in 2001, an effort to include its leader, Masood Azhar, as an “internationally designated terrorist” was vetoed by China.

Here’s what else you need to know:

Pakistan’s message: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tasked his country’s military to enact “self-defense” with “corresponding actions,” according to his office. He lauded his country’s air force following a claim by military sources that it shot down five Indian fighter jets. Pakistan’s defense minister cautioned that Islamabad is “trying to avoid” a full-fledged war. Pakistan will only hit military targets in India, not civilian, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said.

India’s message: India is urging other countries, including the US, to tell Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism, an official government source said. Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said “the world must show zero tolerance for terrorism.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has not spoken publicly since the strikes, chaired a high-level meeting with senior ministers.

Downed jets: A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN that Pakistan downed one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF), in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat. Pakistan had claimed to have shot down five IAF jets in retaliation for Indian strikes, including three Rafales. Indian officials are yet to respond to the claim.

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

People flee and evacuate on both sides of the border: Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir ordered the evacuation of citizens from areas they deemed dangerous. Residents of Pakistan-administered Kashmir said they were forced to flee their homes and take shelter after India launched missile strikes. Meanwhile, authorities across all Indian states and territories conducted pre-planned civil defense security drills following an order from the home ministry not seen in decades.

New satellite images shared by Maxar Technologies show the aftermath of Indian strikes in Muridke in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Video also showed the Masjid-e- Markaz Taiba religious school in Muridke on fire after India’s strike early Wednesday.

Before the strikes on April 9, 2025:

Muridke, Pakistan, before the strikes on April 9, 2025.

After the strikes, taken on May 7, 2025:

Muridke, Pakistan, is seen after the strikes on May 7, 2025.

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

There were 57 flights in the air when India launched its attack on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir early Wednesday local time, Pakistan’s military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said.

Chaudhry said the flights included planes from Middle Eastern and East Asian airlines.

In an address streamed on state television, Chaudhry shared images from flight-tracking site FlightRadar24 showing multiple planes in Pakistani airspace. CNN corroborated that the images showed three diversions shortly after 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning.

United States President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

United States President Donald Trump encouraged de-escalation between India and Pakistan today following a sharp escalation between the two countries. He said in the Oval Office that he was willing to assist in easing the current violence.

“My position is I get along with both. I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop, and hopefully they can stop now,” Trump said, adding the situation was “so terrible.”

So far, it is not clear how much of a mediating role the US has taken in the conflict. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the interim national security adviser, spoke to officials from both India and Pakistan yesterday evening.

India is urging other countries, including the United States, to tell Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism, an official Indian government source said.

The source indicated that what happens next is up to Pakistan and repeatedly emphasized that Indian strikes early Wednesday local time targeted “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and were designed to be measured and non-escalatory. The source described the strikes as a rightful response by India to last month’s Kashmir tourist massacre — which New Delhi blamed on its neighbor but Islamabad denied.

India had waited two weeks to see if Pakistan took “clear, demonstrable steps” in response to the attack, but no such steps were taken, the source said. They also claimed that India had intelligence that suggested potential further attacks.

The source said India is also still working out details on the alleged downing of Indian jets by Pakistan.

Conversation with the US: Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also the interim national security adviser, spoke “at length” on a call, which took place shortly after the strikes began. The source could not say if the US was given a concrete heads up ahead of the strikes.

The US State Department said yesterday that Rubio spoke to the national security advisers from India and Pakistan and “urged both to keep lines of communication open and avoid escalation.”

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

The Pakistan Air Force reduced Indian jets to “smithereens,” the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed, warning Pakistan would avenge the deaths of those killed by India’s strikes.

“In an hour-long air battle, our pilots blew up the jets of the enemy to smithereens,” he said in an address to the nation on state television Wednesday night local time.

Pakistan claimed earlier Wednesday to have shot down five Indian Air Force jets in retaliation for Indian strikes, including three elite French-made Rafales. Indian officials have yet to respond to the claim.

Referring to the 31 people Pakistan says were killed in India’s attack, he added: “The blood of these martyrs will be avenged.”

The prime minister said Pakistan has been among the countries most impacted by terrorism in the region, having lost tens of thousands of lives and suffering financial losses in the fight against it over the years.

Since the April 22 terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, when gunmen killed 26 people — mostly Indian tourists — Pakistan has stressed its condemnation of terrorism and pushed back on Indian allegations that Pakistan was behind the massacre.

The death toll in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir has risen to 31, with 57 injured, military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Wednesday night local time.

He cited India’s firing at the Line of Control — the de-facto border in the disputed Kashmir region — as a reason for the increase in casualties.

Pakistan’s president and prime minister attended the funeral of the seven-year-old son of an army colonel who was killed in Indian strikes on Pakistan, the country’s armed forces said in a statement Wednesday.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif joined other senior government and army officials attending the funeral ceremony of the son of Lt. Col. Zaheer Abbas Turi, who was killed in Dawarandi, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Following funeral prayers in Islamabad, the Pakistani prime minister condemned India’s “deliberate targeting of civilians” as a “reprehensible act of cowardice,” the statement from Pakistan’s armed forces said.

The Indian military said that it targeted “terrorist infrastructure” across nine sites in Pakistan’s densely populated Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It claims that no military sites were targeted in its strikes and that there had been no reports of civilian casualties.

“The President & the Prime Minister affirmed that the valiant Armed Forces of Pakistan are resolutely confronting Indian forces across all fronts, delivering a strong and uncompromising response,” the statement said.

The leaders said the deadly attacks, which killed at least 26 people in Pakistan, will be met with “decisive action,” the statement added.

A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN today that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan, in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat.

Pakistan claimed earlier today to have shot down five Indian Air Force jets in retaliation for Indian strikes, including three Rafales. Indian officials are yet to respond to the claim.

The French official told CNN that French authorities were looking into whether more than one Rafale jets were shot down by Pakistan overnight.

Pictures taken of parts of an aircraft that crashed in Indian-administered Kashmir show the label of a French manufacturer, but experts said it was not possible to say whether the part came from a Rafale aircraft.

Dassault Aviation, the French manufacturer of the jet, has not responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

Some background: The Rafale is a 10-ton, twin-engine multirole fighter, equipped with a 30mm cannon for air combat and ground support, along with air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs, and cruise missiles.

Before this latest escalation, India had 36 Rafale jets in its Air Force, purchased from French manufacturer Dassault Aviation.

The French military has not officially commented on the incident.

Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif speaks during an interview in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 28.

Pakistan’s defense minister has warned that India’s latest assault marked an “invitation to expand the conflict” between the two neighbors — but cautioned that Islamabad is “trying to avoid” a full-fledged war.

New Delhi’s deadly barrage on Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir early Wednesday was a “clear-cut violation,” according to Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.

He insisted that Pakistan’s military was braced “for an all-out war,” after India raised the “stakes” this week — following decades of tensions in one of the most militarized places in the world.

“What happens next is we are prepared for an all-out war. There is absolutely no doubt, because India is increasing the intensity, the stakes of this conflict,” added Asif. “So… we can’t be caught with our guards down.”

Claims of downed jets: Pakistan’s armed forces fired missiles and struck down five Indian fighter jets “in a dogfight,” according to the country’s defense chief, who described the military’s actions as a “befitting lesson” for New Delhi.

When pressed for evidence, Asif cited social media video.

“(India has) already admitted that three planes were downed,” Asif told CNN. “These planes were downed in a dogfight. Missiles were fired by our planes, and they were shot down. Very simple.”

Contrary to Asif’s claims, India has not said that any of its planes have been shot down.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Pakistan’s defense minister.

Israel’s ambassador to India said in a social media post, following India’s strikes on Pakistan, that his country “supports India’s right for self defense.”

“Terrorists should know there’s no place to hide from their heinous crimes against the innocent,” Reuven Azar wrote, adding “#OperationSindoor,” the Indian military’s codename for their strikes on Pakistani targets.

Unlike most international statements as India and Pakistan teeter on the edge of a wider conflict, the ambassador’s post does not include a call for restraint or de-escalation.

Some context: The two countries share deep military ties. India imports more weaponry from Israel than any other country, accounting for over a third of all Israeli arms exports, according to recent figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In India’s capital, New Delhi, civilians who spoke with CNN had mixed feelings about the government’s decision to carry out a series of overnight strikes on Pakistan.

The Indian government said the strikes were carried out in response to an April terror attack in India-administered Kashmir that killed at least 25 Indian citizens.

Charu Murgai, 38, a makeup artist in Delhi, said she felt “that war might make the things more terrible, for the economy, for the civilians, for the people who are going to fight for on behalf of us,” while another said she didn’t support the decision by the government to strike Pakistan.

But some supported the government’s actions, with 45-year-old Monika Lakra, an educator, telling CNN she was “very happy” that the government had taken action, giving “kudos to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Maurya said she doesn’t “hate the normal people of Pakistan. I would love to meet them. I would love to hang out with them, but the government of Pakistan I really hate,” she told CNN.

“It’s a very big word to say hate, but I do hate the Government of Pakistan because they have known that these terrorists can have a very big impact on the normal likes of people in Kashmir, and they still allow them to stay there.”

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks during an event in November.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif lauded his country’s air force following a claim by military sources that it shot down five Indian fighter jets.

Sharif praised the Pakistani military’s readiness “to deal with the enemy’s planes,” as he addressed the country’s parliament in capital Islamabad for the first time since India’s attack early on Wednesday local time.

The prime minister also told lawmakers that India used dozens of warplanes in its attack. India’s assault killed at least 26 people, including a 3-year-old girl, and wounded at least 46 other people. according to a Pakistani military official.

Sharif did not elaborate on how Pakistan might respond to India’s attack, after he earlier described it as an “act of war.” His office said the country’s military had been “authorized to undertake corresponding actions in this regard,” according to an earlier statement.

“A few days ago, India was proudly showing off its purchase of Rafale jets. But one shouldn’t be too proud,” Sharif told lawmakers. “These jets flew from there in combat form, but our air force was also prepared.”

Lawmakers filled the country’s parliament building with calls of “Pakistan Zindabad,” which translates to “Long Live Pakistan.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistani military sources said they brought down five Indian fighter jets and one drone in an act of “self-defense” — including three Rafale aircraft, which are highly sophisticated multi-role jets manufactured in France. CNN cannot independently verify the claim and has reached out to the Indian government for a response.

The number of casualties from overnight shelling by the Pakistani military on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir has risen, with 12 civilians killed and 57 injured, a senior Indian defense source told CNN.

India and Pakistan have had near daily exchanges of fire across the Line of Control since the April 22 tourist massacre that sent relations between the two sides plummeting.

Pakistan’s military previously confirmed it shelled Indian positions in Indian-administered Kashmir overnight in response to India’s airstrikes on its territory. India accused the Pakistanis of unprovoked firing over the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani attends a press conference Doha in October.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani spoke to top officials from both India and Pakistan today, holding a phone call with the Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and a separate call with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, the Qatari foreign ministry said in two statements.

For context: Doha has successfully acted as a mediator recently. Qatar was one of the actors mediating talks between Israel and Hamas that led to a temporary ceasefire earlier this year, played a role in discussions that led to the return of deported Ukrainian children from Russia, and facilitated the freeing of an American citizen who spent more than two years in detention in Afghanistan.