India and Pakistan exchange artillery fire in major escalation of tensions as world leaders urge calm

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along with their controversial border Wednesday, after New Delhi launched missile strikes on its arch-rival with a major increase between neighbors with nuclear armed.

The dead were reported on both sides. Pakistan said India strikes killed at least eight people, and India said Pakistan's artillery fire killed three civilians along with the De facto border in Kashmir contest.

New Delhi has announced that it is conducting the “strike of accuracy to terrorist camps” at nine Kashmir sites in Pakistan, days after it blames Islamabad for a deadly attack on the side of the Indian-run of the disputed region.

The Indian army said “justice was served”, along with New Delhi adding that its actions were “focused, measured and non -nature escalatory”.

Pakistan's defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the AFP: “Revenge has begun. We will not be able to resolve the score.”

He accused India Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching strikes to “coast” her domestic popularity.

Islamabad reported eight civilians – including a child – killed in strikes, which hit at least six locations.

Earlier, the Pakistan military said that three Kashmir-administered locations were hit with two-Bahalurpur and Muridke-in the most popular country province of Punjab.

The AFP has heard letters to Pakistani-run Kashmir and Punjab many powerful explosions.

Later, India accused Pakistan of “incidental” firing and artillery throughout the control line (LOC), the De Facto border in Kashmir, with a fire explosion as shells reached by AFP journalists.

“Three innocent civilians have lost its life”, said the Indian army, which added it reacts in a “proportional way”.

India is widely expected to respond to the military to the April 22 attack on Kashmir tourists governed by India Gunmen said it was from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a designed terrorist organization.

That attack left 26 people who died, mainly the Hindu men, in the hotspot of the tourist of Pahalgam. No group claims responsibility.

New Delhi blames Islamabad for supporting the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.

Pakistan rejected the accusations, and the two sides exchanged night -night gunfire since April 24 with the Loc, according to the Indian Army. Pakistan also said it conducted two missile trials.

'Highest restraint'

Wednesday's strikes were a dangerous increase in dispute between neighbors in South Asia, who fought in many wars since they were engraved from sub-continent at the end of the British rule in 1947.

For the days the international community was stacked with pressure in Pakistan and India withdrawing from the brink of war.

“The world will not be able to face a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement, added that Guterres called “maximum restraint.”

Asked about the strikes, US president Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that he hoped the fighting was “ending very fast”.

The Indian Embassy in Washington told New Delhi's national security advisor Ajit Doval gave a brief to state secretary Marco Rubio after the strikes.

Rubio also spoke with Pakistan's National Security Advisor Lt. General Asim Malik, an old Pakistan military official told the AFP.

US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed that Rubio had spoken to his counterparts from both India and Pakistan.

“I keep track of the situation between India and Pakistan,” Rubio told X, adding that “he will continue to engage in Indian and Pakistan's leadership to a peaceful resolution”.

Explosion near the loc

The Indian army said it “showed a huge restraint on the selection of targets and methods of implementation”, adding that “no Pakistan military facilities are targeted”.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who calls for India's “uninnocked” and “cowardly” attack, said the “harmful act of aggression will not be punished.”

Indian fighter jets can be heard flying in Srinagar, the Kashmir capital governed by India.

Strong explosions can also be heard in the town of Poonch, just about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the loc.

Rebels in Kashmir managed by India have conducted an uprising since 1989, seeking freedom or a partnership with Pakistan.

India regularly blames its neighbor for supporting armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad has denied.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi is expected to be in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after a visit to Islamabad, as Tehran aims to intervene.

India is scheduled to hold several civil defense drills on Wednesday, while Schools in Punjab of Pakistan are closed, local government officials said.

The strikes came several hours after Modi said the water flowing through the Indian boundaries would stop. Pakistan warned that the coherence of rivers flowing from India to its territory was a “gesture of war”.

Modi did not mention Islamabad specifically, but his speech came after New Delhi suspended part of the 65-year-old Indus Waters Treaty, which manages water critical in Pakistan for consumption and agriculture.

“India's water used to get out outside, it is now flowing for India,” Modi said in a speech in New Delhi.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com