India and Pakistan had a new fire exchange during the night. The conflict broke out again amid Indian air strikes on alleged “terrorist industries” of the Islamist groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, in the cities of Bahawalpur and Muridke in Pakistan, IPN reports, with reference to Reuters.
Indian authorities said the attack was a “response” to last month’s attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 tourists died.
According to the Pakistani Ministry of Defense, 13 people lost their lives in the attack.
Another airstrike took place at midnight, on a complex in Muridke. Four Indian missiles were launched during six minutes, destroying a mosque and an administrative building. Three people were trapped under the rubble. Officially, the complex is billed as a government health and education center, but India says it is affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, believed to be responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attack.
Hafiz Saeed, leader of LeT and its successor organizations, who is held in a Pakistani jail, said that his network, which spans 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups.
India’s army said it had conducted pinpoint strikes on the two headquarters of its militant adversaries, part of what it said were nine “terrorist camps” targeted. It noted that over the last three decades, Pakistan has systematically built terror infrastructure.
The authorities in Islamabad said India had hit six sites, killing 26 people and wounding 46, all civilians.
