India and Pakistan Strikes Risk Escalation After Kashmir Attack

Tensions between India and Pakistan ratcheted up as the two countries traded military strikes, weeks after a militant attack in Kashmir killed 26 people in India, most of them tourists. New Delhi said Wednesday it had conducted “precise and restrained” strikes on “terrorist camps,” hitting no Pakistani civilian, economic or military targets. Pakistan, however, said 26 civilians were killed in the strikes, and that it shot down five Indian planes. There was no way to independently confirm the claims.

The two countries have been at loggerheads since their violent and bloody partition following independence from Britain in 1947. The main focus of their rivalry is Kashmir, an area of the Himalayas that both India and Pakistan claim in its entirety while governing separate parts. Today, they face off along a 460-mile (740-kilometer) de facto boundary known as the Line of Control, one of the world’s most militarized zones. After these latest attacks, the question now is whether conflict will escalate further.