Star Metro - Pakistan retaliates against India in spiralling conflict

The South Asian countries have exchanged fire since Wednesday, when India carried out air strikes on sites in Pakistani territory over a deadly attack on tourists on the Indian side of the divided Kashmir region.

The clashes -- which have involved missiles, drones, and exchanges of fire along the de-facto border in disputed Kashmir -- are the worst in decades and have killed more than 50 civilians.

World leaders including the G7 group of industrialised nations have called for restraint, and the United States on Saturday offered help to get both sides talking as the violence intensified.

The Indian army on Saturday reported fresh Pakistani attacks along their shared border.

"Pakistan's blatant escalation with drone strikes and other munitions continues along our western border," the army said on X.

AFP journalists reported loud explosions in Srinagar, the capital of India-administered Kashmir.

The army said "multiple enemy drones were spotted flying over" a military cantonment in Amritsar in Punjab, a state adjoining Kashmir, and were "instantly engaged and destroyed by our air defence units."

Hours ahead of Pakistan's latest operation, the country's military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry had accused India of having "attacked with missiles" targeting three air bases.

In the live broadcast aired by state television in the middle of the night, he said a "majority of the missiles" had been intercepted and "no flying assets" had been damaged.

One of the bases targeted, Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi, the garrison city where the army is headquartered, is around 10 kilometres (6 miles) from the capital Islamabad.

Several blasts were heard from the capital overnight.

The air base is used to receive foreign dignitaries and Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs Adel Al-Jubeir had departed just hours earlier.

"Now you just wait for our response," Chaudhry warned India.

With the violence ratcheting up, Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered US help to deescalate.

Speaking with Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir on Saturday, Rubio "continued to urge both parties to find ways to deescalate and offered US assistance in starting constructive talks in order to avoid future conflicts," said spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.

- Disputed Kashmir -

The fighting was touched off by an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 tourists, mostly Hindu men, which Delhi blamed on Islamabad.

India accused the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba -- a UN-designated terrorist organisation -- of carrying out the attack but Pakistan has denied any involvement and called for an independent probe.

The countries have fought several wars over the Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate portions of since gaining independence from British rule in 1947.

Previous clashes have been mostly limited to the Kashmir region, separated by a heavily militarised border known as the Line of Control, but this time India has struck multiple cities deep in Pakistan.

Pakistan's foreign ministry alleged New Delhi's "reckless conduct has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict".

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top security officials on Friday, including his national security advisor, defence minister and the chiefs of the armed forces, his office said.

Most of the fatalities, which included children, were in Pakistan during Wednesday's first air strikes by India.

- Drone warfare -

The last days have been framed by a series of ripostes following attacks from each side.

On Friday, the Indian army said it had "repulsed" waves of Pakistani attacks using drones and other munitions overnight, and gave a "befitting reply".

Pakistani military sources said its forces had shot down 77 drones, with debris of many incursions seen by AFP in cities across the country.

An Indian army spokeswoman on Friday spoke of "300 to 400" Pakistani drones, but it was impossible to verify that claim independently.

Pakistan has accused India of fabricating the drone strikes, and early Saturday its military claimed Delhi's forces had bombed their own territory in Amritsar, without providing evidence.

Civilians have come under fire on both sides, with Islamabad and New Delhi accusing each other of carrying out unprovoked artillery shelling, and missile and drone strikes.

On Friday, shelling along the LoC killed five civilians including a two-year-old girl on the Pakistan said, officials said.

Across the border, a police official said one woman was killed and two men wounded by heavy shelling.

- Disruptions -

Armed groups have stepped up operations in Kashmir since 2019, when Modi's Hindu nationalist government revoked its limited autonomy and took the state under direct rule by New Delhi.

The conflict has caused major disruptions to international aviation, with airlines having to cancel flights or use longer routes that do not overfly the India-Pakistan frontier.

India has closed 24 airports, while schools in areas close to the border on both sides were shuttered, affecting millions of children.

The mega Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament was on Friday suspended for a week, while Pakistan suspended its own T20 franchise competition indefinitely.

burs-ecl/hmn/tym

A.Bergeron--SMC