INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India hit Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir with missiles on Wednesday and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian aircraft and vowed to
Minister Rajnath Singh said
targeted in Pakistan were militant camps
At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 wounded, a Pakistan military spokesperson 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 an Indian strike was
Security forces surrounded a small mosque in a hill-side residential neighbourhood that had been hit, with its minaret collapsed
Later in the day, funerals were held for several of those killed.Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have fought two of their three
told Reuters that three fighter jets had crashed in separate areas of the Himalayan region during the night and their pilots had been
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
Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the image.Indian forces attacked facilities linked to Islamist militant groups
sign of marriage.India had earlier said two of three suspects in the tourist attack were Pakistani nationals, without detailing any evidence
Pakistan has denied any links to the attack and called for an independent investigation.The strikes used precision weapons to target
military spokespeople said.Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, the top official in its external affairs ministry, told the briefing that
part of the region, police there said
At least six people were killed on the Pakistani side, officials there said.Risk of EscalationThe scale of the strikes went far beyond New
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum military restraint from both countries, a spokesperson said
China, which neighbours both India and Pakistan, and Russia also called for restraint, as did Britain, which agreed a free trade deal with
government trying to shore up finances and make progress on the $7 billion International Monetary Fund loan programme agreed in
