May 7 (UPI) — Pakistan has the right to retaliate against India’s “act of war,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Wednesday, after New Delhi launched strikes against alleged terrorists within Pakistan’s borders.
“The cunning enemy has carried out cowardly attacks on five locations in Pakistan,” Sharif said in a statement on X. “Pakistan has every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India, and a forceful response is being given.”
No specifics of a retaliation were given, but Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s minister for information and broadcasting, announced in a statement that “Pakistan has befittingly retaliated against Indian Aggression.”
He said the Pakistani military had downed at least three Indian fighter jets and an Indian drone.
“The entire nation stands united in prayers and solidarity with our brave officers and soldiers,” Tarar said.
India launched Operation Sindoor over Tuesday night, attacking what it called terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan-controlled western region of Kashmir, whose sovereignty is disputed by both Pakistan and India.
The Indian Armed Forces said in a statement that it attacked nine alleged sites in retaliation for the deadly April 22 massacre of 26 tourists in the mountainous Pahalgam region of India-administered Kashmir. The Indian government has described the targets as “terrorist camps.”
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature,” the Indian Armed Forces said. “No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”
India has blamed Pakistan for the Pahalgam attack, alleging it was conducted by Pakistan-based terrorists.
Late last month, Tarar said Pakistan had credible intelligence showing India intended to attack it over the Pahalgam massacre.
“Indian self-assumed hubristic role of judge, jury and executioner in the region is reckless and vehemently rejected,” he said in a statement on X. “Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism itself and truly understands the pain of this scourge.”
New Delhi has previously launched strikes into Pakistan after Pakistan-based terrorists attacked it on accusations that Islamabad was harboring the militants.
In 2019, India fighter jets conducted airstrikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed camps in Pakistan after the terrorist group killed more than 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Force personnel in a suicide bombing in India’s Jammu and Kashmir.
“The world must show zero tolerance for terrorism,” Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, said Wednesday on X.