MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan/NEW DELHI: India said it attacked nine sites in Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday where strikes against it had been planned, and Pakistan reported at least three people died and 12 were injured, according to an initial assessment.

The offensive occurred amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in the aftermath of an attack on Hindu tourists in IIOJK last month.

Pakistan said India launched missiles at five places, but an Indian government statement did not detail the nature of the strikes.

“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 Indian statement said.

“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” it said.

A Pakistani military spokesman told private TV channel that Pakistan’s response was under way, without giving details. The spokesman said five places were hit including two mosques and reported three deaths and 12 people injured.

After the explosions, power was blacked out in Muzaffarabad, the capital of AJK, witnesses said.

Witnesses and one police officer at two sites on the frontier in IIOJK said they heard loud explosions and intense artillery shelling as well as jets in the air.

After India’s strikes, the Indian army said in a post on X on Wednesday: “Justice is served.”—Reuters