Dead were reported on both sides. Pakistan said Indian strikes had killed at least eight people, and India said Pakistani artillery fire had killed three civilians along the de facto border in contested Kashmir.
New Delhi announced it had carried out "precision strikes at terrorist camps" at nine sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed region.
The Indian army said "justice is served", with New Delhi adding that its actions "have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature".
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told AFP: "The retaliation has already started. We won't take long to settle the score."
He accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to "shore up" his domestic popularity.
Islamabad reported eight civilians -- including one child -- killed in the strikes, which hit at least six locations.
Earlier, Pakistan's military said three locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir had been hit along with two -- Bahawalpur and Muridke -- in the country's most populous province of Punjab.
AFP correspondents in Pakistani-run Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.
Shortly after, India accused Pakistan of "indiscriminate" firing and artillery shelling across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, with bursts of flame as shells landed seen by AFP reporters.
"Three innocent civilians lost their lives", the Indian army said, adding it was responding in a "proportionate manner".
India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir by gunmen it said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
That assault left 26 people dead, mainly Hindu men, in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam. No group has claimed responsibility.
New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.
Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the LoC, according to the Indian army. Pakistan also said it has held two missile tests.
- 'Maximum restraint' -
Wednesday's strikes are a dangerous heightening of friction between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.
For days the international community has piled pressure on Pakistan and India to step back from the brink of war.
"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement, adding that Guterres called for "maximum restraint."
Asked about the strikes, US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he hopes the fighting "ends very quickly".
India's embassy in Washington said New Delhi's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had briefed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the strikes.
Rubio also spoke with Pakistan's national security advisor, Lt. General Asim Malik, a senior Pakistani military official told AFP.
US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed that Rubio had spoken with his counterparts from both India and Pakistan.
"I am monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely," Rubio said on X, adding that he will "continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution".
- Explosions near LoC -
India's army said it had "demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution", adding that "no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted".
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, calling the Indian attack "unprovoked" and "cowardly", said the "heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished."
Indian fighter jets could be heard flying over Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.
Loud explosions could also be heard in the town of Poonch, only about 10 miles (16 kilometres) from the LoC.
Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
India regularly blames its neighbour for backing armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after a visit to Islamabad, as Tehran seeks to mediate.
India was also set to hold several civil defence drills Wednesday, while schools in Pakistan's Punjab were closed, local government officials said.
The strikes came just hours after Modi said that water flowing across India's borders would be stopped. Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an "act of war".
Modi did not mention Islamabad specifically, but his speech came after New Delhi suspended its part of the 65-year-old Indus Waters Treaty, which governs water critical to Pakistan for consumption and agriculture.
"India's water used to go outside, now it will flow for India," Modi said in a speech in New Delhi.
Trump hopes India-Pakistan clashes end 'very quickly'
Washington (AFP) May 6, 2025 -
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he hoped clashes between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan end "very quickly," after New Delhi's forces launched strikes and Islamabad vowed retaliation.
"It's a shame, we just heard about it," Trump said at the White House, after the Indian government said it had hit "terrorist camps" on its western neighbor's territory following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
"I guess people knew something was going to happen based on the past. They've been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it," he added.
India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in full but administer separate portions of the disputed region.
"I just hope it ends very quickly," said Trump.
India had been widely expected to respond militarily since gunmen shot dead 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, mostly Hindus.
New Delhi has blamed militants that it has said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organization.
Pakistan's army said the Indian strikes targeted three sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and two in Punjab province, the country's most populous.
Islamabad said that three civilians, including a child, had been killed in Indian strikes.
The Indian strikes came just hours after the US State Department issued a fresh call for calm.
"We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work towards a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Her statement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned of stopping water from flowing across borders following the Kashmir attack.
India and Pakistan: a history of armed conflict
New Delhi (AFP) May 7, 2025 -
Long-running tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan soared Wednesday after New Delhi launched deadly strikes at Pakistani territory.
The missiles killed at least eight people, according to Pakistan, which said it had begun retaliating in a major escalation between the South Asian neighbours.
India accuses Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 men were killed.
Islamabad has rejected the charge. Both countries have since exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, expelled citizens and ordered the border shut.
Since the April attack soldiers on each side have fired across the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir, a heavily fortified zone of Himalayan outposts.
The two sides have fought multiple conflicts -- ranging from skirmishes to all-out war -- since their bloody partition in 1947.
- 1947: Partition -
Two centuries of British rule ends on August 15, 1947, with the sub-continent divided into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The poorly prepared partition unleashes bloodshed that kills possibly more than a million people and displaces 15 million others.
Kashmir's monarch dithers on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule.
After the suppression of an uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He seeks India's help, precipitating an all-out war between the countries.
A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (480-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divides Kashmir.
- 1965: Kashmir -
Pakistan launches a second war in August 1965 when it invades India-administered Kashmir.
Thousands are killed before a September ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States.
- 1971: Bangladesh -
Pakistan deploys troops in 1971 to suppress an independence movement in what is now Bangladesh, which it had governed since 1947 as East Pakistan.
An estimated three million people are killed in the nine-month conflict and millions flee into India.
India invades, leading to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh.
- 1989-90: Kashmir -
An uprising breaks out in Kashmir in 1989 as grievances at Indian rule boil over. Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians are killed in the following decades.
India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training.
- 1999: Kargil -
Pakistan-backed militants seize Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains.
Pakistan yields after severe pressure from Washington, alarmed by intelligence reports showing Islamabad had deployed part of its nuclear arsenal nearer to the conflict. At least 1,000 people are killed over 10 weeks.
- 2019: Kashmir -
A suicide attack on a convoy of Indian security forces kills 40 in Pulwama.
India, which is busy with campaigning for general elections, sends fighter jets which carry out air strikes on Pakistani territory to target an alleged militant training camp.
One Indian jet is shot down over Pakistani-controlled territory, with the captured pilot safely released within days back to India.
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