NYT: Pakistan claims to have downed Indian warplanes, vows response to strikes

[Dennis Donovan]

NYT - (archived: https://archive.ph/1X0ON )Pakistan claims to have downed Indian warplanes, vows response to strikes

India’s military said the strikes were made in retaliation for a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. Analysts warn the risk of escalation is rising.

By Shaiq Hussain, Rick Noack, Karishma Mehrotra, Shams Irfan and Haq Nawaz Khan
May 7, 2025 at 3:33 a.m.



ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — India and Pakistan are facing direct conflict for the first time since tensions spiked in 2019, after India on Wednesday launched strikes on Pakistan and Islamabad claimed to have downed several Indian warplanes.

India’s armed forces said nine sites “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed” were hit in retaliation for last month’s militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi has linked that attack to Islamabad — something its neighbor has denied.

Analysts have warned in the wake of the attacks that the risk of escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors is increasing. Wednesday’s aerial assault was on a far bigger scale than in 2019, when India struck a single, remote Pakistani site in response to a similar militant attack in Kashmir.

Pakistani officials said the strikes early Wednesday killed at least 21 civilians, including two children. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement Wednesday that the country “has every right to give a befitting reply to this act of war imposed by India and a befitting reply is being given.”

/snip

[DonCoquixote]

1. dammot

it is like since Trump went crazy, every world leader has decided to finally give in to long held desires to go to war, like an ex smoker that decides to light up.

[witoyan637]

2. Pakistan claims

Pakistani officials said the strikes early Wednesday killed at least 21 civilians, including two children. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement Wednesday that the country “has every right to give a befitting reply to this act of war imposed by India and a befitting reply is being given.”

[marble falls]

4. Two nuclear powers facing off. What could go wrong?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Welcome to DU

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. Welcome to DU

[Cheezoholic]

3. What happens when these guys decide to start trading nukes? This needs addressed immediately by adults n/t

[FSogol]

5. Sorry, none of the adults are home.

[dalton99a]

6. Where India and Pakistan get their arms

India, a traditionally nonaligned country that has shed its history of hesitance toward the United States, has been buying billions of dollars in equipment from the United States and other Western suppliers. At the same time, India has sharply reduced purchases of low-cost arms from Russia, its Cold War-era ally.

Pakistan, whose relevance to the United States has waned since the end of the war in Afghanistan, is no longer buying the American equipment that the United States once encouraged it to acquire. Pakistan has instead turned to China for the vast majority of its military purchases.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/world/asia/india-pakistan-weapons.html

[Renew Deal]

7. What is Pakistan willing to do to shut down the group that performed this attack?

That’s the question. If it’s nothing, India has every right to do what they are doing. If Pakistan is willing to combat and arrest the group, then maybe there is room for collaboration. But we can’t be in a world where small terror groups can provoke large wars.

[EX500rider]

10. I imagine Pakistan does not really want to start a war with their much bigger neighbor

They will claim they shot down a bunch of planes as a excuse.

India's military spending in 2024 was nearly nine times that of Pakistan's expenditure.

In terms of personnel, India has 1,237,000 active personnel in its army, 75,000 in the navy and 149,900 air force.
Pakistan has fewer than half that with 560,000 active personnel in the army, 30,000 in the navy and 70,000 in the air force.

[EX500rider]

11. Yep, there it is: "Shehbaz Sharif says Pakistan responded to India's air strikes by downing Indian jets"