The unknown about the Indian bombings on Tuesday, in which 31 people died, persists this Thursday while the skirmishes between the two nuclear powers continue. The Pakistani government has claimed to have intercepted at least 50 drones launched by India in recent days, including two in the morning of Thursday over Lahore, a few 20 kilometers from the border. The authorities of India, on the other hand, have accused their neighbor of trying to reach their territory with the launch of unmanned devices and missiles that, according to New Delhi, were intercepted. The Indian Ministry of Defense has placed the dead number from the Pakistani response in 16.
After the offensive launched by India on Tuesday night, as a reaction to the attack on April 22 in the Indian Kashmir, Pakistani Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, ordered the Armed Forces to prepare to execute “relevant actions” in self -defense. The Indian Ministry of Defense has reported Thursday that it has neutralized the attempts of Pakistan to attack several military objectives in its northern and west regions on Wednesday night and early Thursday. The Islamabad version differs. According to the Pakistani Ministry of Information, the Army has “fly” the Indian military facilities on the border in fact Between the two countries, according to Reuters.
Analysts cited by international media have pointed out in the last hours that Pakistan is discussed between launching a limited reprisal – with the possibility that India respond and climb the conflict – and the option of presenting a symbolic victory. That triumph could be the demolition of five Indian fighters that Islamabad claims to have made.
Pakistan states that, in the midst of the immediate response to the bombings, there was an air confrontation in which more than a hundred combat planes from both countries participated, without any crossing the border. According to the Pakistani version of the facts, its Air Force managed to reduce five Indian aircraft during the confrontation, which describe as one of the most intense and prolonged of the last decades. Although New Delhi has not confirmed or denied the loss of airplanes, a senior official of the French Ministry of Defense cited by several agencies said that at least one of the fighters Rafale Indians was shot down.
The Indian government and army, for now, keep silent about this battle. The only reaction to the alleged demolition of the fighters has been, for the moment, a publication in the social network X of the Embassy of that country in China aimed at the Chinese newspaper Global Times In response to an article about that incident. In that response, the diplomatic legation recommends that the newspaper “verify the facts and contrast the sources before disseminating this type of misinformation.” It also denounces the circulation of images supposedly linked to the demolition that, according to the embassy, actually correspond to previous incidents that occurred in 2021 and 2024.
“, Even if the circumstances are still unclear. That would allow him to affirm that he has inflicted costs to the Indian military apparatus, without the need to respond with more attacks,” Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program of the South of the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace Center.
“Avoid total war”
But another possibility is that Pakistan responds with his own attack, since some of the Indian bombings reached densely populated areas outside that both countries had respected from the high the fire of 2003. The Minister of Defense, Khawaja Asif, has promised that any military response will be limited to strategic facilities and will not affect civilians, in order to “avoid a total war”. However, he also stressed that his country “cannot afford to be surprised with the Guardian Baja.”
Several experts believe that the final decision could fall on the head of the Army, Syed also Munir, who is considered more firm and proactive than his predecessor, Qamar Javed Bajwa, who was in charge during the last major military crisis between the two countries, in 2019. Then, the response to Indian attacks was quick, measured and focused on avoiding an open escalation, although with a clear intention to show capacity for deterrence.
Wednesday’s Indian military operation, baptized as a Sindor, was the direct response to the attack on April 22 in the tourist town of Pahalgam, in the Kashmir administered by New Delhi, where an armed group murdered 26 Indian tourists, mostly Hindus. India attributes authorship to insurgent groups based on Pakistan, particularly Lashkar-E-Taiba and Jaish-E-Mohammed. The latter has recognized the death of ten relatives of its leader, including five minors, in the Indian retaliation attack.
Fire crosses along the border have become almost daily. This Wednesday, Pakistani bombing caused the death of 15 civilians in the Indian region of Kashmir, to which the Indian Army responded with artillery fire. The climb has altered everyday life in the region. The schools remain closed and 21 airports in northern India will do so until Saturday, according to the authorities.
In the Karnah area, close to the control line, the de facto border between both countries, several residents have reported damage to housing and “intense” shots that lasted on Wednesday until the night. Some have slept in underground bunkers. Others say that the shootings have continued this Thursday morning in Kupwara, further north, although it has been less intense than on the eve.
The uncertainty about the next step that Islamabad will take is mixed with one for the control of the story. Nueva Delhi claims to have attacked exclusively infrastructure linked to terrorism and seeks to project firmness for the country, but without being openly aggressive before the international community. Islamabad, meanwhile, argues that all whites hit by India were civil.
