As tensions escalate, Pakistan says it has summoned India's chargé d’affaires to complain about what it calls "unprovoked" Indian air strikes.

"These strikes resulted in deaths and injuries of several civilians, including women and children," a statement by Pakistan's foreign ministry said, adding that the Indian action "constituted a clear violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty".

Islamabad says it has also warned Delhi that "such reckless behaviour poses a serious threat to regional peace and stability".

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri spoke at a press conference about India's strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

India blames Pakistan for the deadly Pahalgam attack which killed 26 people last month - a claim Pakistan denies.

"It was deemed essential that the perpetrators and planners of the 22 April attack be brought to justice," Mr Misri said.

He added that India had intelligence that "further attacks" were "impending".

"There was thus a compulsion both to deter and to pre-empt," he said.

Pakistan’s military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says 26 people have been killed and 46 injured in Indian air strikes and firing along the Line of Control - the de facto border between the countries.

Pakistan had earlier put the number of dead at eight.

At their briefing earlier today, an Indian army officer had said they had "no reports of civilian casualties in Pakistan".

Aamir Peerzada
Reporting from Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir

A top official in Poonch district in Indian-administered Kashmir has told the BBC that at least seven people have been killed and around 32 others have been injured in cross-border shelling in Poonch district.

Poonch lies near the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between India and Pakistan.

“The shelling has stopped as of now. We are on the ground assessing the situation," said Azhar Majid, sub-divisional magistrate of Poonch.

An Indian army spokesperson had earlier confirmed three deaths in the region.

Image source, PIB

After Mr Misri's briefing, two Indian military officials - Colonel Sofiya Qureshi from the army and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh from the air force - gave details of the Indian operation. They also showed visuals of what they described as "destroyed terror camps".

Some points from their briefing:

• India conducted airstrikes at nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir
• The strikes took place over 25 minutes between 01:05 and 01:30 India time (19:35 and 20:00 GMT on Tuesday)
• We chose the targets based on credible intelligence inputs
• We have successfully destroyed the targets

Mr Misri spoke in some detail about the "barbarity" of last month's attack in Indian-administered Kashmir which he said was carried out by "Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists". He did not share any evidence of this in the briefing.

He blamed the attack on The Resistance Front (TRF), describing it as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group based in Pakistan that India has designated a terrorist organisation.

Soon after the attack, a social media post appeared claiming to be speaking on behalf of the TRF, saying it was behind the killings. But the TRF later denied involvement saying someone with access to its social media account had wrongly claimed a role in the attack.

Pakistan has denied any involvement in the Pahalgam attack and asked India to show any evidence it has. It hasn't responded to India's latest claims yet.

Mr Misri said Indian intelligence's monitoring of "Pakistan-based terrorist modules" indicated that further attacks against India were impending.

"There was thus compulsion both to deter and to pre-empt [further attacks]."

He also reiterated that India's strikes in Pakistani territory were "measured, non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible".

Image source, Getty Images

Some updates from the briefing...

Mr Misri said the attack was clearly driven by the "objective of undermining the normalcy" returning to Indian-administered Kashmir.

It was designed to derail the mainstay of the local economy - tourism, he said.

Last year, more than 22.5 million tourists visited Indian-administered Kashmir, Mr Misri added.

India's media briefing on the strikes has started in the capital, Delhi. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is currently speaking about the militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir and about Pakistan's alleged link to the attackers - an accusation Islamabad has denied.

Stay with us as we bring you more from the briefing.

Debris from an unidentified aircraft has been found in Pampore in Indian-administered Kashmir. There is no official confirmation yet on which aircraft has crashed or who it belongs to.

Pakistan’s military claims it has shot down five Indian fighter jets but India has not commented on this yet. The BBC's Riyaz Masroor reports from the ground.

Video by Shafat Farooq, BBC Urdu

Archana Shukla
India business correspondent

Image source, EPA

India's benchmark stock indexes opened lower on Wednesday after the military strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The Sensex lost close to 800 points and the Nifty lost 150 points in pre-trade, though they recovered some losses in the first few minutes after markets opened.

Sectoral indices trading in the red include media, consumer goods and pharma. Auto stocks and banks are, however, gaining in trade.

Markets are also reacting to news from Tuesday evening of India clinching a trade deal with the UK that looks to boost trade amidst global tariff turmoil.

Broader Asian markets were also trading in the green on Wednesday.

Image source, Getty Images

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has praised the country's armed forces in a post on X, saying he was proud of them.

Operation Sindoor - India's name for its strikes on Pakistan - is the country's response to the "brutal killing of our innocent brothers in Pahalgam", he wrote.

"The Modi government is resolved to give a befitting response to any attack on India and its people. Bharat [India's name in the Hindi language] remains firmly committed to eradicating terrorism from its roots," he added.

Pakistan has claimed that it has shot down five Indian aircraft.

"So far, I can confirm to you that five Indian aircraft - including three Rafale, one SU-30 and one MiG-29 - and one Heron drone have also been shot down,” Pakistan military spokesperson Lt-Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary has said in a video shared by Reuters.

India has not responded to the claims yet.

Aamir Peerzada
Reporting from Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir

We are now getting more details about one of the three civilian deaths that have been confirmed in Indian-administered Kashmir after Pakistan retaliated to India's air strikes with shelling along the Line of Control - the de-facto border between the countries.

Buava Singh, a resident of Poonch district located along the LoC, says a mortar shell struck his niece Ruby Kaur's house late in the night.

"She had just woken up to make tea for her husband, who hadn't been keeping well. The shell’s splinters hit her head, causing severe bleeding. We rushed her to a nearby hospital, but she was declared dead,” Singh says. Ruby Kaur's daughter was badly injured.

Singh says that there were no community bunkers in the area, forcing residents to take shelter in their homes.

"We have never seen such heavy shelling so far," he adds.

The Chinese foreign ministry has called India's military operation against Pakistan "regrettable".

In response to a question on escalating tensions between the South Asian rivals, the foreign ministry spokesperson, external said they were "concerned" about the ongoing situation and asked both countries to "remain calm, exercise restraint and refrain from taking actions that may further complicate the situation".

BBC Urdu

Image source, Getty Images

Muhammad Younis Shah, a resident of Muridke in Pakistan's Punjab province, tells the BBC that four missiles fired by India fell on a building within a large complex. The first three missiles landed in quick succession while a fourth came after an interval of five-to-seven minutes, he said.

The complex - which has a school and a college, a hostel and a medical centre as well as a mosque and some other buildings - has been partially damaged. Shah says the complex also has a residential area where some families live. It is not clear which of the buildings were damaged in the strike and the extent of the damage they suffered.

Rescue workers, fire brigade and policemen are present in the area which is gripped by fear and panic, he says. "All the people have moved from here to a safer place," he adds.

Image source, Getty Images

Muhammad Waheed lives near the Bilal mosque in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

“I was fast asleep when the first explosion shook my house,” he told the BBC.

“I ran out onto the road where people had already gathered. Before we could figure out what was happening, three more missiles were fired, causing widespread panic and chaos."

Waheed says dozens of people, including women, have been injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

"People are now fleeing their homes and the sense of uncertainty is very high," he adds.

An Indian army spokesperson has now confirmed to the BBC that three civilians have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir. We don't have more details at the moment.

Image source, Getty Images

India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has said in a post on X that the world "must show zero tolerance for terrorism".

He added an image with the words 'Operation Sindoor' - the name India is using to describe Wednesday's strikes against Pakistan.

The image has a black background with the words 'Operation Sindoor' written in white. One of the Os in Sindoor is a round pot filled with vermillion powder worn by married Hindu women in the parting of their hair.

The depiction is being read as a reference to the women who were widowed after their husbands were shot dead by militants in Pahalgam. All the 26 people killed in the attack were men.

Image source, Getty Images

We now have reactions coming in from Indian opposition leaders, who have expressed support for the strikes.

Mallikarjun Kharge, chief of the main opposition Congress party, says "national unity and solidarity is the need of the hour". He says that since last month's attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, his party has "categorically stood with the armed forces and the government to take any decisive action against cross-border terror".

Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has also welcomed the "surgical strikes" carried out by India on "terror camps in Pakistan".

Image source, Getty Images

News of the strikes comes as several Indian states have been holding security drills for civilians.

The federal home ministry had issued an order earlier this week, asking for drills to be conducted across 244 districts in the country with the aim of assessing and enhancing "civil defence mechanisms".

The ministry said the objective was to assess the effectiveness of India's air raid warning systems, control rooms, evacuation plans, crash blackout measures and civil defence services.

The order said the exercise aimed to train civilians and students "to protect themselves in the event of a hostile attack". It did not mention Pakistan or last month's attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Footage shared by news agency ANI on Tuesday showed volunteers and officials carrying out rehearsals in different states.

We'll bring you some photos and videos from more drills scheduled for Wednesday.

Indian media reports say Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has spoken to the chiefs of the army, air force and navy to discuss the airstrikes.

Indian officials are expected to brief the media on the military operation at 10:00 local time (04:30GMT).

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