'Escalation Risks Catastrophe': Restraint Urged as Pakistan Vows to Avenge Indian Strikes

Observers around the world sounded the alarm Wednesday over the risks of escalation between nuclear neighbors after Pakistan retaliated for Indian airstrikes that reportedly killed over 30 civilians including children in response to last month's Pahalgam massacre in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

The Pakistani newspaper Dawnreported that India bombed six sites in Punjab's Sialkot and Bahawalpur, as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday night as part of Operation Sindoor, a response to the April 22 militant attack on a tourist site in Pahalgam that killed 26 people. India blamed Pakistan for supporting "cross-border terrorism" after a front group of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attack.

Officials in Islamabad said the Indian strikes this week skilled 31 civilians, including several children. In retaliation, Pakistan carried out artillery attacks across the so-called Line of Control on the border with India. The shelling reportedly killed at least 15 civilians. In a televised address, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the attacks a "reply" to India's airstrikes.

"When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled."

Pakistani forces also shot down five Indian warplanes and attacked several Indian checkpoints, according to Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry.

On Wednesday, Sharif claimed his government offered to cooperate with India to investigate the Pahalgam attack.

"Instead, they fired missiles inside our territory, thinking we would back down and will not retaliate," he said of India, vowing that "every drop of blood" will be avenged. Sharif added that India "must suffer the consequences" for its "cowardly" attacks.

Mirza Waheed, a Kashmiri journalist and award-winning novelist, toldDemocracy Now! on Wednesday that "this is a dangerous escalation."

Asked about the increasingly Hindu nationalist rule of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Waheed said "it is a different regime" than under previous New Delhi administrations, one that is "more open to armed response."

Noting that civilians have borne the brunt of cross-border clashes between Indian and Pakistani forces, Waheed said, "When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled."

Foreign Policy South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman noted on social media that "India's strike on Pakistan is of much greater scale than the one in 2019."

"Pakistan's response, which according to many reports included downing several Indian jets, has also exceeded the scale of 2019," he added. "They're already higher up the escalatory ladder than any time in '19 crisis."

Echoing Wednesday's warning from a Nobel Peace Prize-winning nonproliferation group, British Green Party Member of Parliament Ellie Chowns said: "I am deeply alarmed by the overnight strikes between India and Pakistan and the tragic loss of civilian lives on both sides. As two nuclear-armed neighbors, escalation risks catastrophe."

"I urge both governments to step back from the brink in order to prioritize dialogue and lasting peace," Chowns added.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it is "concerned about the current developments" between the two nations. China controls about 15% of Kashmir.

"China opposes all forms of terrorism. We call on both India and Pakistan to prioritize peace and stability, remain calm and restrained, and avoid taking actions that further complicate the situation," the ministry said. "China finds India's military operation early this morning regrettable… India and Pakistan are and will always be each other's neighbors. They're both China's neighbors as well."

In the United States—which backed Pakistan's 1971 genocide in Bangladesh that ended following an Indian invasion—President Donald Trump called the escalating situation between the nuclear neighbors "a shame."

"I hope it ends very quickly," Trump added, offering to mediate a deescalation between the two countries, as the U.S. has repeatedly done in the past.

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on social media that "an armed conflict between India and Pakistan would be catastrophic for the world and must be avoided at all costs."

"The United States and our allies should be doing everything we can to stop another escalation and pursue all possible diplomatic avenues to resolve this peacefully," Omar asserted.