Every time there is a terrorist attack on India from across the border with Pakistan, India conducts a couple of air strikes to which the Pakistanis reply in kind. This has been a regular feature in the fraught relationship between the two countries since the 1990s.
India and Pakistan have fought full-scale wars in 1947-48, 1965 and 1971, each lasting two weeks or more. But since the Kargil conflict in 1999, the pattern has been marked by quick air strikes basically to express displeasure without actually going to war with widespread operations and the deployment of all the three services: the Army, Navy and the Air Force.
A deadly militant attack in Pahalgam, in Indian-Kashmir on April 22, has triggered a sharp escalation between India and Pakistan, with both sides exchanging gunfire across the Line of Control (LOC) and downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).
On May 6, India announced the launch of “Operation Sindoor,” targeting nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which it alleged were used to plan the attacks. Indian aircraft struck Murdike, and Bahalwalpur among nine places in Pakistan. Pakistan claimed to have down five Indian aircraft.
Historical background
The conflict between India and Pakistan arose out of the 1947 Partition of British India. The Partition established a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a Hindu-majority India. But Jammu and Kashmir proved to be problematic. Its Maharajah was Hindu but the population was 85 percent Muslim. Pakistan claimed it but Maharajah Hari Singh opted for India. Pakistan sent irregular troops to seize Kashmir, but the Indian Army pushed them back to an area now called Azad Kashmir or Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
Since then, both Armies have been exchanging fire across the Line of Control. Pakistan would send “freedom fighters” (according to them) to foment an anti-Indian movement, only to fail to achieve its goal.
Pakistan’s attempt to capture Kashmir with its troops in 1965 led to a two-week war which was brought to an end with Soviet Union’s intervention and mediation. In 1971, India and Pakistan fought another 21- day war over East Pakistan, which led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh in December 1971.
India and Pakistan attempted to usher in a new era of bilateral relations with the 1972 Simla Agreement, which established the Line of Control in Kashmir.
However, in 1974, the conflict took on a new dimension with the introduction of nuclear weapon by India, raising the stakes of any confrontation. Pakistan reached that same nuclear milestone two decades later.
Internal turmoil in Kashmir
In 1989, Pakistan capitalised on a burgeoning resistance movement in Indian Kashmir to undermine Indian control. The constant dilution of Kashmir’s autonomy by successive Governments in New Delhi and the rigging of elections in Kashmir, caused civil unrest which was exploited by Pakistan. It sent agents and terrorists, to help keep up the resistance to India.
In 1999, Pakistani soldiers crossed the LOC, sparking the Kargil War. The war ended with US diplomatic intervention and the withdrawal of the invading Pakistani forces.
However, the two sides regularly exchanged fire across the contested border with India accusing Pakistan of sending infiltrators.
On November 26, 2008, fears that India and Pakistan would again head towards direct military confrontation rose after militants laid siege to the Indian capital of Mumbai. Over three days, 166 people were killed, including six Americans. India and the United States blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group with alleged ties to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)—Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency—for perpetrating the attack.
The perpetrators were brought to justice. Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist, was caught red handed, brought to trial and hanged.
In 2014, many hoped India would pursue meaningful peace negotiations with Pakistan after India’s newly elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi invited Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend his inauguration. After a brief period of optimism, relations soured in August 2014 when India cancelled talks with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister after the Pakistani High Commissioner in India met Kashmiri separatist leaders.
Army base in Uri attacked
Armed Pakistani militants attacked a remote Indian Army base in Uri, near the LOC, killing eighteen Indian soldiers in the deadliest attack on the Indian armed forces in decades. Indian officials accused Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), another group with alleged ties to ISI, of conducting the attack.
In response, the Indian military said it had carried out “surgical strikes” on terrorist camps inside Pakistani-administered Kashmir. In contrast, the Pakistani military denied that any such operation had taken place.
In late 2016 and in 2018, tension on the LOC prevailed. There were 3,000 cross-border strikes in 2017, while nearly 1,000 were reported in the first half of 2018.
Militants launched attacks in October 2017 against an Indian paramilitary camp near Srinagar and, in February 2018, against an Indian Army base in the Jammu region, which killed five soldiers and a civilian.
At this time, violent demonstrations and anti-India protests calling for an independent Kashmir arose in Indian Kashmir. Over three-hundred people, including civilians, Indian security forces, and militants, were killed in attacks and clashes in 2017. After months of Indian military operations targeting Kashmiri militants and demonstrations, India said in May 2018 that it would observe a cease-fire in Kashmir during the month of Ramadan for the first time in nearly two decades.
In February 2019, an attack on a convoy of Indian paramilitary forces in Pulwama in Indian-administered Kashmir, killed at least forty soldiers. The attack, claimed by the Pakistani militant group JeM, was the deadliest in Kashmir in three decades. India retaliated with an air strike targeting terrorist training camps within Pakistani territory, which was followed by Pakistani air strikes on Indian-administered Kashmir.
The exchange escalated into an aerial engagement, during which Pakistan shot down two Indian military aircraft and captured an Indian pilot; the pilot was released two days later. In August 2019, the Indian Government moved to revoke Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that had given autonomy to Kashmir. The change removed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, reduced its Status from a federal State to a Union Territory directly administered by New Delhi. Kashmiris were to abide by Indian property and citizenship laws, effectively diminishing their autonomy.
The ruling not only angered Kashmiris but was also viewed as a “grave injustice” by Pakistan. The removal of Article 370 signified the more aggressive approach of the Modi Government to integrate Kashmir into India through a doctrine of Hindu nationalism, critics said.
Following the revocation of Article 370, Kashmir remained under lockdown for over a year, with internet and phone services intermittently cut off and thousands of people detained. In 2022 and 2023, the Indian Central Government cracked down on independent media in the region, redrew the electoral map to privilege Hindu-majority areas in Kashmir, and held a G20 tourism meeting in Srinagar.
Targeted killings against Hindus by Islamic militants have become more frequent, motivating some to flee and protest Government policies. In response to the uptick in violence, the Modi Government has taken an increasingly militarised response. Deadly clashes between Indian and Pakistani forces also persisted in 2023.
Terror attacks continue
Throughout 2024, violence continued in Kashmir in response to increasing efforts by New Delhi to consolidate territorial control. Attacks specifically targeted Indian travellers and workers in the region.
In June 2024, militants opened fire on a bus carrying pilgrims travelling to a Hindu shrine in the town of Reasi. The attack killed nine and injured over thirty. In October, militants killed seven Indian workers in Kashmir at a construction site for a tunnel project connecting Kashmir to the Northern region of Ladakh.
On April 22, 2025, tensions escalated after militants attacked Indian tourists in Pahalgam in Kashmir, killing twenty-six Indian nationals and one Nepalese national. The incident marked the deadliest terrorist attack in Indian territory since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. India blamed Pakistan for harbouring the group responsible for the attack and arrested two Pakistani nationals as suspects. Pakistan denied any involvement, and its Defence Ministry even suggested the attack was a “false flag operation.”
Although no group has been officially identified as responsible for the attack, the Kashmir Resistance—an offshoot of LeT—claimed responsibility online.
In the wake of the attack, tit-for-tat measures by India and Pakistan have driven bilateral relations to their lowest point in recent years. New Delhi first took measures to downgrade ties with Pakistan, suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, terminating a visa-free travel regime with Pakistan, and closing the Attari border crossing between the two countries.
In turn, Pakistan rejected the suspension of the water treaty, warning that any attempts to alter Pakistan’s Indus River flows would be considered “an act of war.” Islamabad also moved to close Pakistani airspace to all Indian commercial airlines, halted a special visa regime for Indian citizens, and suspended bilateral trade.
Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged fire across the LOC every day since the attack.
The United States and China have called for de-escalation, with Beijing advocating for an independent investigation into the attack and its suspects.
Islamabad and New Delhi have since traded military threats, with India’s Navy testing long-range missiles. On April 28, Pakistan’s Defence Ministry expressed belief that an Indian military attack on Pakistani territory was “imminent” and that the Pakistan military was preparing reinforcements.
India has launched a crackdown in Kashmir, as Indian Security Forces have arrested over 1,500 Kashmiris and demolished homes of suspected militants. A much-delayed Operation Sindoor followed on May 6. Indian planes struck nine places known to be harbouring terrorists in Pakistan including Murdike and Bahawalpur. Pakistan said that it downed five Indian planes. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
