Donald Trump called the burgeoning conflict between India and Pakistan a ‘shame’ as he learned of overnight exchanges between the two nuclear-armed states.
‘It’s a shame. We just heard about it,’ he told reporters late on Tuesday. ‘They’ve been fighting for a long time … I just hope it ends very quickly.’
India and Pakistan were teetering on the brink of war this morning after New Delhi hit what it called ‘terrorist camps’ overnight, prompting stark threats from Islamabad.
Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets as it condemned an ‘act of war’ from India, vowing to retaliate after missiles hit Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Both sides exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier into Wednesday. Pakistan reported 26 killed by Indian shelling, and India reported eight the other way.
The Indian army said ‘justice is served’, with New Delhi adding that its actions ‘have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature’.
But fears of a full-blown conflict between the two nuclear powers have escalated sharply in the last few hours.
India says it was attacking bases used by those it blames for an attack on the Indian-run side of Kashmir last month – the worst massacre of civilians in India since 2008.
It added that ‘no Pakistani civilian, economic or military targets have been hit’ in the missile attacks’ – an assertion sharply rebuked by Pakistani officials.
Donald Trump told reporters it was a ‘shame’ the conflict broke out and said he hopes it ends ‘very quickly’
India fired missiles across the border into nine Pakistani ‘terror camps’ in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir early Wednesday
No military facilities were targeted in the strikes
India said it had evidence of further ‘impending’ attacks, and was acting to ‘deter’ militantism
Fighter jets roared through the skies over the Himalayan territory this morning and explosions could be heard near the ‘Line of Control’ in a strike that lasted 25 minutes.
The Indian government said in a statement in the early hours of Wednesday morning that its armed forces had launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting what it called terrorist infrastructure in ‘Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir’.
It had vowed to strike back after a militant group known as The Resistance Front (TRF) initially claimed responsibility for a terror attack targeting civilians in India on April 22. It later rescinded the statement and blamed the initial claim on a communications breach.
Hindu-majority India accuses Islamic Pakistan of funding and encouraging militancy in Kashmir, the Himalayan region both nations claim in full but rule in part.
Pakistan denies involvement.
At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 injured in India’s missile attack on Pakistani-controlled territory overnight, Pakistan officials said, vowing a tough response.
Islamabad said a three-year-old child was among eight civilians killed in the strikes.
In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, troops cordoned off streets around a mosque Islamabad said was hit, with marks of explosions also visible on the walls of several homes.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said today that India had intelligence suggesting that ‘further attacks’ were ‘impending’ before they took action.
‘Our intelligence monitoring of Pakistan-based terrorist modules indicated that further attacks against India were impending,’ he said in a briefing on the operation today.
‘There was thus a compulsion both to deter and to pre-empt.’
India claimed to have destroyed a number of what it called ‘terror camps’ in Pakistan
Tanks are transported on a road in Muridke near Lahore, Pakistan, May 7, 2025
Debris of an aircraft lies in the compound of a mosque at Pampore in Pulwama district of Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, May 7, 2025
A girl who lives in a village near the Line of control between India and Pakistan, and got injured during shelling by Pakistan gets treated at a hospital in Uri, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Misri blamed last month’s attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on ‘Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists’, the BBC reports.
He said it was carried out by The Resistance Front, which he claimed was a front for Pakistani Indian-proscribed terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Misri said that investigations into the April 22 attack had revealed the ‘communication nodes of terrorists in and to Pakistan’.
He argued that ‘the features’ of the attack on civilians ‘also tie in with Pakistan’s long track record of perpetrating cross-border terror in India’.
India struck nine ‘terror bases’ with missiles late on Tuesday night, before both sides exchanged artillery fire.
It then accused Pakistan of ‘again violating’ a ceasefire agreement by ‘firing artillery in Bhimber Gali in Poonch- Rajauri area,’ on the Indian side.
The army ‘is responding appropriately in a calibrated manner,’ it added.
But fears remain that the conflict could blow up into a full-scale war between the two neighbouring countries.
A city view of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administrated Kashmir as strikes hit overnight
Fire fighters douse smoke coming out from the debris of an aircraft near Akhnoor on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Indian security personnel stand guard in Wuyan near Srinagar on May 7, 2025
‘Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,’ Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.
He said the ‘deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks at five locations in Pakistan’ and that his country would retaliate.
Indian missiles hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, killing at least 26 people, including women and children, said Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif.
Sharif said the Indian jets also damaged infrastructure at a dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, calling it a violation of international norms.
Indian media cited officials in saying that seven people, including a woman and two children, had been killed and 38 injured in strikes into Indian territory from Pakistan.
Pakistan was said to have ‘pounded dozens of forward villages with artillery and mortar shelling along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’.
India’s army accused Pakistan of ‘indiscriminate’ firing across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, with bursts of flame as shells landed, AFP reporters saw.
Local residents examine a building damaged from a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan controlled Kashmir, in Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Local residents and members of the media examine a building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan controlled Kashmir, in Wednesday, May 7
This handout photograph released by the Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on May 7, 2025 shows paramedics giving treatment to an injured man at a hospital in Bahawalpur, Punjab province, following strikes in Pakistan
The strikes came amid soaring tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors over last month’s militant attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, which killed 26.
India has blamed Pakistan for backing the bloody attack, which Islamabad has denied.
The shooting, which Indian authorities believe was carried out by Pakistani assailants, prompted a flurry of military and diplomatic action as both sides engaged in exchanges of fire along the ‘Line of Control’.
India launched naval drills, test-fired several long-range missile systems and suspended a key treaty that ensures India supplies Pakistan with water from the Indus River, a provision that is crucial for Pakistan’s water supply and agricultural economy.
Pakistan, which has denied any involvement in the attack, deployed its air force to close its airspace to Indian airlines and has mobilised its army.
India identified two of the three April 22 attackers as ‘terrorists’ from Pakistan waging a violent revolt in the Indian-administered but Muslim-majority part of Kashmir.
The majority of the dead were Hindu tourists from India, with reports from witnesses and survivors claiming the gunmen were ordering civilians to recite Islamic prayers and shooting those who were unable to do so.
A Pakistani militant group known as The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility in the wake of the attack, only to rescind the statement days later and blame the initial claim on a communications breach.
Workers paint a red cross symbol over the roof of a hospital as a preventive measure amid the ongoing border tensions, in Srinagar on May 7, 2025
Indian school students take part in a mock drill at Rajkiya Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in New Delhi, India, May 7 2025
Students take part in an emergency mock drill as part of the nationwide civil defence mock drill at a school in New Delhi on May 7, 2025, as border tensions surge
Dr. Mohammad Faisal, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK has blasted foreign powers for not intervening sooner to cool tensions between India and Pakistan.
He accused India of attacking civilians and said that retaliation ‘should’ happen.
He told the Today Programme: ‘During the night there were multiple attacks on Pakistan and we have been alerting the world of this eventuality for the last 15 days or so.
‘I have been urging all the international community to intervene, to escalate the situation, to improve the relations. Sadly nothing much has happened.
‘Yesterday Indian attacks have led to 26 deaths of civilians, which includes women and children, young girls, and 46 injured.
‘There is a lot of anger in Pakistan. We have shot down some five planes, three Raphales and Su-30s and two or three drones.’
He confirmed that Pakistan was shelling India, adding: ‘If Pakistan is attacked, we will retaliate. So if from the other side there are bombs and shells falling on our side of course retaliation will be there.
‘Retaliation should also be there for the 26 deaths that have happened, all of civilians. And all during the day today their funerals will be carried out all over Pakistan.
‘This is a cause of grave concern for us and for two nuclear-armed powers.’
