'India hit three locations with missiles', confirms Pakistan; says 'provocation will not go unanswered'

A Pakistani military spokesperson confirmed that India hit three locations in Pakistan with missiles on May 7. 

Multiple loud explosions were heard in the Pakistani Kashmir area close to the mountains around the city of Muzaffarabad after midnight, Reuters reported, citing multiple witnesses. After the explosions, the city’s power was blacked out, according to the witnesses. 

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said missile strikes were fired by India at Kotli, Bahwalpur and Muzaffarabad in a “cowardly attack” amid intense tensions between the two countries in the wake of a terror attack in occupied Kashmir. 

"Some time ago from now, the cowardly enemy India launched air strikes on Subhanullah mosque in Bahwalpur’s Ahmed East area, Kotli and Muzaffarabad at three places from the air. All of our air force jets are airborne. This cowardly and shameful attack was carried out from within India’s airspace. They were never allowed to come and intrude into the space of Pakistan. Let me say it unequivocally: Pakistan will respond to this at a time and place of its own choosing. This heinous provocation will not go unanswered," Chaudhry said.

Official confirmation said India struck bases in Pakistan and PoK from where terrorist attacks were being planned and directed. A total of nine sites were targeted in the overnight precision strikes under the codename 'Operation Sindoor'. 

”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. These steps come in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were murdered. We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable,” the government said in a press release. 

The strikes come almost two weeks after the barbaric terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which terrorists from Pakistan shot dead 26 civilians in a tourist spot.