India has fired missiles at Pakistani territory in a major escalation of tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, as Pakistan vowed retaliation.
The Indian government said it had attacked nine sites, claiming they were "precision strikes at terrorist camps" in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, days after it blamed Pakistan for a deadly attack on the Indian side of the contested region.
"A little while ago, the Indian Armed Forces launched 'OPERATION SINDOOR', hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed," the government said in a statement.
The Indian army, in a video posted on its X account, said "justice is served," with New Delhi adding that its actions "have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature".
"No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted," it added. "India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution".
Pakistan's Defence Minister told the Reuters news aganecy that two indian planes and one drone were shot down during the strikes.
Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif also said at least three civilians, including a child, were killed and several more were injured.
"They have targeted multiple locations, which all are civilian... We have confirmed reports of three civilians killed that includes one child," Mr Asif said.
Watch: Multiple explosions heard in Muzaffarabad, Pakistani Kashmir
Pakistan's military said that the five locations included three in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and two - Bahawalpur and Muridke - in the country's most populous province of Punjab.
AFP correspondents in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.
"We will retaliate at the time of our choosing," said Pakistani military spokesman Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, calling the strikes a "heinous provocation".
India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the attack on tourists in Kashmir last month by militants which it has claimed were from Pakistani group Lakshar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation. The attack left 26 people dead.
India has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.
Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since 24 April along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised line of control, according to the Indian army.
India has also accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire agreement with artillery fire across the dividing line in Kashmir, soon after India's attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
"Pakistan again violates the Ceasefire Agreement by firing artillery in Bhimber Gali in Poonch-Rajauri area," on the Indian side, the Indian army said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The army "is responding appropriately in a calibrated manner", it added.
India’s missile strikes are a dangerous heightening of friction between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of British colonial India in 1947.
For days the international community has piled pressure on Pakistan and India to step back from the brink of war.
"We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work towards a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia," US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters hours before the strikes.
US President Donald Trump said that the recent Indian strikes against targets in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir were a "shame".
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr Trump said he had just heard about the intensification of hostilities that had occurred in recent hours.
"They've been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it...I just hope it ends very quickly," Mr Trump said.
Insurgency
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India will "identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer" who carried out the attack at Pahalgam in Kashmir last month.
Indian police have issued wanted posters for three suspects - two Pakistanis and an Indian - who they claim belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Pakistani military has said it has launched two missile tests in recent days, including of a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450km - about the distance from the Pakistan border to New Delhi.
India is set to hold several civil defence drills tomorrow preparing people to "protect themselves in the event of a hostile attack".
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on tomorrow, two days after talks in Islamabad with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Iran has offered to mediate between the two nations, and Mr Araghchi will be first senior foreign diplomat to visit both countries since the 22 April attack sent relations plunging.
Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
India regularly blames its neighbour for backing gunmen behind the insurgency.
'Act of war'
The strikes came just hours after Mr Modi said that water flowing across India's borders would be stopped.
Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an "act of war".
Mr Modi did not mention Pakistan specifically, but his speech came after India suspended its part of the 65-year-old Indus Waters Treaty, which governs water critical to Pakistan for consumption and agriculture.
"India's water used to go outside, now it will flow for India," Mr Modi said in a speech in New Delhi.
