INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India attacked Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets in the worst fighting
them linked to an attack by Islamist militants on Hindu tourists that killed 26 people in Indian Kashmir last month.Islamabad said six
Pakistani locations were targeted, and that none of them were militant camps
At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 injured, a Pakistan military spokesperson said.Indian forces attacked the headquarters of Islamist
sites and a military spokesperson told Reuters five Indian aircraft had been shot down, a claim not confirmed by India.However, four local
government sources in Indian Kashmir told Reuters that three fighter jets had crashed in separate areas of the Himalayan region during the
night.All three pilots had been hospitalised, the sources added
Indian defence ministry officials were not immediately available to confirm the report.Images circulating on local media showed a large,
damaged cylindrical chunk of silver-coloured metal lying in a field at one of the crash sites
neighbours also exchanged intense shelling and heavy gunfire across much of their de facto border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, police
and witnesses told Reuters.Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over
countries recommitted in 2021, targeted strikes between the neighbours are extremely rare, especially Indian strikes on Pakistani areas
Sindoor is the Hindi language word for vermilion, a red powder that Hindu women put on the forehead or parting of their hair as a sign of
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum military restraint from both countries, a spokesperson said
killed seven civilians and injured 35 in the Indian sector of the region, police there said.Indian TV channels showed videos of explosions,
fire, large plumes of smoke in the night sky and people fleeing in several places in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir
Reuters could not independently verify the footage.In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, damage from the Indian strike was
Security forces surrounded a small mosque in a hill-side residential neighbourhood which had been hit, with its minaret collapsed.All
schools in Pakistani Kashmir, the national capital Islamabad, and much of Indian Kashmir and the populous Pakistani province of Punjab were
ordered closed on Wednesday in the aftermath of the strikes.Imran Shaheen, a district official in Pakistani Kashmir, said two mortars landed
on a house in the town of Forward Kahuta, killing two men and injuring several women and children
In another village, a resident had been killed in firing, Shaheen said.Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad was responding
to the Indian attacks but did not provide details
alert.A Pakistani military spokesperson told broadcaster Geo that two mosques were among the sites hit by India
were Pakistani nationals but had not detailed its evidence
Pakistan denied that it had anything to do with the April killings.News of the strikes impacted Indian stock futures mildly, with the GIFT
airline, IndiGo, opens new tab, Air India and Qatar Airways cancelled flights in areas of India and Pakistan due to closures of airports and
airspace.Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval spoke to United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior Indian
officials briefed counterparts in Britain, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, an Indian source told Reuters.The Indian
