A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Indians and Pakistanis had been waiting for - or dreading - this moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF MISSILE STRIKING)
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
India struck multiple targets across Pakistan in the most extensive strikes in more than 50 years. It comes after India blamed Pakistan for an attack that killed 26 people in late April. Pakistan denies any connection. Its military has retaliated by firing into parts of Indian-held Kashmir, and it claims it has downed five Indian aircraft. The Associated Press reports that more than 30 people were killed in Pakistan. India says three people were killed on their side.
MARTÍNEZ: On the line with us is NPR's Diaa Hadid. She covers Pakistan and India from her base in Mumbai. Diaa, tell us about these strikes. They happened overnight there.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Yeah. And most people were sleeping, A, but a resident near one of the worst-hit places in southern Pakistan recorded this audio.
(SOUNDBITE OF MISSILE STRIKING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).
HADID: And even in a nearby town, one resident said the strikes woke up his family. This is Ijaz Rao.
IJAZ RAO: My family wake up, and they say, something is - very strange is happening, that - not just one blast. There were a number of blasts. The windows were shaking.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. So what kind of places was India targeting in Pakistan?
HADID: Well, India's army says it struck militant training camps and what they call terror infrastructure. And many of those strikes were in Pakistani-held Kashmir. Kashmir is that Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan. It's claimed by both, and it's at the heart of nearly every conflict between the two countries. But Pakistan says the strikes mostly hit mosques and part of a hydropower dam. One prominent Pakistani militant says one of the strikes targeted his relatives and killed 14 people, including women and children. That was in a small town in southern Pakistan. And it's really important to say here where these strikes took place. Some were deep in Pakistan. One was near the country's second-largest city.
So here have a listen to Michael Kugelman. He writes the Foreign Policy's weekly South Asia Brief, and he says this hasn't happened in decades.
MICHAEL KUGELMAN: The airstrikes that India has launched into Pakistan are the deepest into Pakistani territory since 1971. What also stands out about these recent strikes is the scale and intensity of them.
HADID: And analysts I've spoken to say they were actually expecting India to hit hard.
MARTÍNEZ: Expecting them? Why were they expecting that?
HADID: Well, just because of the nature of the attack that triggered these renewed tensions. It happened on April 22, when gunmen attacked Indian tourists in a meadow. And it seems some of the gunmen targeted Hindu men. It was the deadliest attack against civilians in years. And the victims came from all over India, so it just really triggered widespread anger. But after the strikes, the Indian military said its response was measured, focused and nonescalatory. Analysts say those words signal that India is not interested in escalating this further.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, could all this maybe quiet down, or do folks there expect more military actions?
HADID: I guess the problem here is with strikes so deep in Pakistan, and with this death toll, Pakistan may feel like it must respond to show people that its army isn't weak. So analyst Praveen Donthi with the International Crisis Group says other countries have to step in.
PRAVEEN DONTHI: I'm afraid, if the international community doesn't step in, especially the U.S., then we're only seeing the beginning of these escalatory strikes.
HADID: For now, President Trump has said he hopes this ends quickly, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he's closely monitoring the situation.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Diaa Hadid in Mumbai. Thank you very much.
HADID: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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