India hit Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir with missiles on Wednesday and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian aircraft and vowed to retaliate, in the worst fighting in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours. India said it struck nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites, some of them linked to an attack by Islamist militants on Hindu tourists that killed 26 people in Indian Kashmir last month. Pakistan said at least 26 people had been killed on Wednesday and that India “had ignited an inferno in the region”. Islamabad pledged to respond “at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty”. A government security committee said Islamabad emphatically rejected Indian allegations of the presence of terrorist camps on its territory. The Indian strikes included targets in Punjab, its first attacks on Pakistan’s most populous province since the last full-scale war between the old enemies more than half a century ago, triggering fears of further hostilities in one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. “The targets we had set were destroyed with exactness according to a well-planned strategy,” India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. “We have shown sensitivity by ensuring that no civilian population was affected in the slightest.”

Full report : India launches missile strikes against Pakistan based terrorist infrastructure in wake of Kashmir massacre.