Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged artillery fire after Indian air strikes claimed multiple lives, as tensions between the two nuclear-armed regional powers threatened to boil over.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif vowed retaliation and an emergency meeting of the National Security Committee in Islamabad on May 7 concluded with a decision authorizing the country's military to respond.
It said that India had "ignited an inferno in the region.”
Following the decision, crowds gathered in several Pakistani cities to voice anger at India's attack and support for retaliation.
"We are standing side by side with the army," protester Fazal Hussain told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal in Peshawar. He added that "we will hoist the Pakistani flag" in Delhi.
Another man at the rally, Abdul Hanan, said India had staged a "cowardly attack."
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India's Deadly Strikes On Pakistan Spark Protests
Both sides reported several fatalities in the shelling on May 7. Pakistan also claimed to have shot down several Indian jets.
“The moment the Indian side released payloads, we engaged their jets and shot five Indian jets," Sharif said during an address to parliament.
Hours earlier, Indian forces hit targets across Pakistani-administered Kashmir and Pakistan’s Punjab Province.
India said it carried out “precision strikes” against “terrorists” following the attack in Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago that killed 26 Hindu tourists.
India had earlier said that two of three suspects in that attack were Pakistani nationals but had not detailed any evidence. Pakistan denied that it had anything to do with the killings.
The Pakistani military said only civilians were killed in the strikes on May 7.
This information was followed by the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed putting out a statement saying that 10 family members of its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, had been killed.
This information could not be immediately confirmed independently.
SEE ALSO: India And Pakistan Are On The Brink Of Conflict. Here's Why.Worst Fighting In Decades
This is the worst fighting between the two sides in more than two decades. Pakistan called the Indian strikes “a blatant act of war.”
As the latest crisis unfolds, media outlets and political leaders on both sides are amplifying war rhetoric. Prime-time talk shows, military-themed advertisements, and nationalist songs are fueling public sentiment.
On social media, users wage digital wars, trading threats and propaganda on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
On May 3, Pakistani channels aired breaking news of the test-fire of the 450-kilometer range Abdali missile. Indian networks, meanwhile, broadcast from high-tech “war rooms,” with dramatic graphics and commentary designed to stir patriotic fervor.
Dr. Tauseef Ahmad Khan, author and former head of the Mass Communication Department at the Federal Urdu University in Karachi, said: “Indian media is under the influence of Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi’s ‘Hindutva’ ideology, while Pakistani media is tightly controlled by the deep state. There’s no room left for sanity.”
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Why Kashmir Remains A Flashpoint Between India, Pakistan, And China
The Kashmir Conflict
The dispute over the mountainous Kashmir region was born from the bloody partition of British India in 1947.
India and Pakistan have already fought three full-scale wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971, and a limited conflict in 1999 also known as the Kargil War.
Due to the power imbalance between the two -- India being militarily and economically stronger -- Pakistan has supported both local and cross-border militant groups since the 1980s to fuel an armed insurgency in Kashmir.
The European Union called for both sides to take steps to deescalate the situation.
"The EU recalls the need for a negotiated, agreed and lasting, peaceful solution to the conflict," EU foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni told reporters.
This latest escalation in the conflict has also sounded alarm bells in Washington, where US President Donald Trump said he had been informed about the attack and hopes the fighting "ends very quickly."
In New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the attack and called for maximum restraint from both countries.
"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," Guterres said, according to his spokesman.