Pakistan Vows to ‘Settle the Score’ Against India After Missile Attack: What to Know

The long-simmering tensions between India and Pakistan are on the cusp of boiling over. India launched a series of missiles into Pakistan-controlled territory after midnight local time, early Wednesday, May 7, killing at least 31 people and injuring dozens of others, according to Pakistani officials.

It’s the most extensive missile strike by India on Pakistan during official peacetime, though Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called it an “act of war” and warned of a “befitting reply.” 

The strike “will not go unanswered,” Pakistan’s ministry of information and broadcasting announced. “The temporary pleasure of India will be replaced by enduring grief.” Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told AFP: “The retaliation has already started. We won’t take long to settle the score.”

In a briefing Wednesday, Indian Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, said that India’s Armed Forces were “fully prepared” to deal with any response by Pakistan. By Thursday, May 9, Pakistan claimed to have killed “40-50 Indian soldiers” along the border in response to the May 7 attack by India.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials have repeatedly claimed a “right to respond” to violence from the other side, as the conflict shows no signs of cooling down. Here’s what to know.

‘Operation Sindoor’ and the Pahalgam attack

India’s attack—which struck at least six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province across a total of 24 strikes, according to Pakistani officials—came amid escalating conflict in the contested Kashmir region since an April 22 attack by a Pakistani militant group on tourists in the town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India accused Pakistan of being involved in the Pahalgam attack, which killed 25 Indian nationals and one Nepalese national and injured dozens more. The Pakistani government denied involvement and called for a neutral investigation.

Since then, there have been tit-for-tat escalations from both sides, including exchanges of gunfire between Indian and Pakistani troops along the border, the expelling of diplomats and nationals on both sides, the closing of airspace to each other’s airlines, and suspension of trade. India has also said it will stop the flow of water from India to Pakistan—a move that Pakistani officials previously warned would be considered an act of war.

Read More: How India Is Threatening to Weaponize Water in Its Conflict With Pakistan

The May 7 airstrikes were dubbed “Operation Sindoor” by Indian officials, after the Hindi word for the vermilion powder mark that Hindu women apply as a dot to their foreheads and in apparent reference to those left widowed after the Pahalgam attack.

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar posted on X, “The world must show zero tolerance for terrorism” alongside an image of the words “Operation Sindoor.”

“India has credible leads, technical inputs, testimony of survivors and other evidence pointing towards the clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in the [April 22] attack,” the Indian Embassy in Washington said in a Tuesday statement.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said at a Wednesday press conference in New Delhi that intelligence suggested “further attacks against India were impending. There was thus the compulsion both to deter and to preempt.”

Minutes before the missile attack was confirmed, the Indian army posted on X a video of Indian forces’ tanks and ammunition with the caption “Ready to Strike, Trained to Win.” Shortly after, the army posted, “Justice is Served. Jai Hind!”

India’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its missile strikes were targeting at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.” The statement added: “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”

Pakistan’s response

The locations hit in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir include its capital Muzaffarabad as well as Kotli and Bagh, and in the Punjab province include Ahmedpur Sharqia (near Bahawalpur), Muridke, and Shakargarh. Pakistani officials told broadcaster Geo that India targeted civilian sites, including mosques, and labeled India’s claim of targeting terrorist infrastructure “false.” Pakistani officials said a three-year-old girl was among the civilians killed by the strikes. India’s strikes also hit infrastructure at a hydroelectric dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to Pakistan’s Armed Forces, which called the shelling a “clear violation of international law.”

Pakistan closed schools in Kashmir and the Punjab province in the wake of the attack. Several flights were cancelled or diverted out of Pakistan’s airspace, including flights under Korean Air, Air France, Lufthansa, Air India, and Qatar Airways.

Pakistani officials said that Pakistan’s air force shot down five Indian jets in retaliation to the attack, two of which fell in India-controlled Kashmir villages and one in Punjab state. Debris of one downed aircraft reportedly hit a school building and mosque in Wuyan village. The other two crashed in open fields in Bhardha Kalan village and Punjab, residents and police told the Associated Press. India’s Press Information Bureau said social media posts claiming that Pakistan destroyed the Indian Brigade Headquarters were false.

Indian officials also said Wednesday that at least 12 civilians were killed and dozens injured by “arbitrary firing” by Pakistani troops in Poonch district across the Line of Control. Pakistan said another five of its civilians had been killed Wednesday from artillery fire along the Line of Control, the AP reported. India’s army said its forces were “responding appropriately in a calibrated manner.”

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that “Indian leadership has once again used the bogey of terrorism to advance its sham narrative of victimhood, jeopardizing regional peace and security. India’s reckless action has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict.”

India’s Ministry of Defense said on X that several military stations along the border in Indian-administered Kashmir were “targeted by Pakistani-origin drones and missiles” late Thursday. Reuters reported projectiles erupting in the night sky above Jammu for more than two hours Thursday evening. The ministry said the threats were “swiftly neutralized” and that “no casualties or material losses were reported.” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry denied the alleged attack, saying India’s claims were “entirely unfounded, politically motivated, and part of a reckless propaganda campaign aimed at maligning Pakistan.” Pakistan accused India of exploiting “misinformation for political and military ends.” Pakistan earlier said that it had shot down a number of Indian-origin drones near Pakistani military sites.

U.N., U.S., China, and others urge de-escalation

The United Nations called for the nuclear-armed neighbors to exercise maximum military restraint. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” Secretary-General António Guterres said in a note issued by his spokesperson.

The U.S. and China also both called for de-escalation. 

“China finds India’s military operation early this morning regrettable. We are concerned about the ongoing situation,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement. “India and Pakistan are and will always be each other’s neighbors. They’re both China’s neighbors as well. China opposes all forms of terrorism. We urge both sides to act in the larger interest of peace and stability, remain calm, exercise restraint and refrain from taking actions that may further complicate the situation.”

China has previously quarrelled with both Pakistan and India over other parts of Kashmir. It reached an agreement with Pakistan in 1963 to establish the border between the two countries; however, India rejects the validity of that agreement and continues to dispute China’s claims to part of eastern Kashmir. Today, China is the largest investor in Pakistan, with $62 billion invested into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor since 2015.

Read More: India and Pakistan: A Timeline of Tensions Over Kashmir

The U.S., meanwhile, has long acted as a mediator between India and Pakistan, including in 1999 when there was concern that 10 weeks of fighting could escalate into a nuclear conflict as well as in 2019 when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo convinced each side “that the other was not preparing for nuclear war,” according to his memoir.

In recent years, India has stepped up its relationship with the U.S., buying billions of dollars of American military equipment, while Islamabad has had a tense relationship with Washington, particularly as popular former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has since been imprisoned on charges of corruption he claims are politically motivated, accused the U.S. of orchestrating his ouster. As such, Pakistan has increasingly turned to China to acquire its weapons. 

And while Beijing has in recent months been working to improve its ties with New Delhi, the U.S. has for years developed its relationship with India explicitly to counter the influence of China in the region. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have met several times over Trump’s first and second presidential terms, and during Modi’s visit to Washington in February, the two discussed deepening defense ties.

After India’s May 7 strikes on Pakistan, U.S. National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both India and Pakistan’s national security advisors, urging both countries to “keep lines of communication open and avoid escalation,” according to the Department of State.

Trump called the strikes a “shame,” telling reporters at the White House: “I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time, they’ve been fighting for many many decades, and centuries actually if you really think about it.” (India and Pakistan have disputed the Kashmir region since their partition from British India in 1947.) “I just hope it ends very quickly,” he said.

Later in the Oval Office, Trump added: “I want to see them stop, and hopefully they can stop now. … And if I can do anything to help, I will be there.”

Read More: How India and Pakistan Can Step Back From the Brink

The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan has advised U.S. citizens “to depart areas of active conflict if they can safely do so, or to shelter in place,” and reminded citizens of its “Do Not Travel” advisory for areas in the vicinity of the India-Pakistan border.

California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee and co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said on CNN that the U.S. needs to be “an honest broker for de-escalation.”

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, India’s ambassador to the U.S. Vinay Kwatra said: “When we did this the day before yesterday, our assumption was that we have completed what we set out to do ourselves vis a vis the terrorists … Pakistan chose to escalate it further.” Later Thursday, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. Rizwan Saeed Sheikh told CNN: “Attacking Pakistan and expecting us to sit back like sacrificial lambs and not responding is something that they shouldn’t even have thought of.”

The U.A.E., which previously mediated tensions between India and Pakistan in 2021, was among several other countries that also urged calm, calling on both sides to “exercise restraint, de-escalate tensions, and avoid further escalation that could threaten regional and international peace.” Iran has offered to mediate peace talks, as its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi headed to New Delhi on Wednesday for a visit, after earlier this week meeting with Pakistani officials in Islamabad in an effort to de-escalate tensions.