Pakistan charged India Friday with bringing the nuclear-armed neighbours “closer to a major conflict”, as the death toll from three days of missile, artillery and drone attacks passed 50.
The bloody escalation comes after an attack on tourists last month in the Indian-run part of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 people, and which New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing — an allegation Pakistan denied.
India responded with air strikes Wednesday on what it called “terrorist camps” in Pakistan, killing more than 20 civilians and fuelling the worst clashes between the two in decades.
“We will not de-escalate, with the damages they did on our side they should take a hit,” Pakistan’s military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told media on Friday.
“So far we have been protecting ourselves but they will get an answer in our own timing.”
On a third day of tit-for-tat exchanges, the Indian army said it had “repulsed” waves of Pakistani attacks using drones and other munitions overnight, and gave a “befitting reply”.
It is the most serious confrontation in decades between the two countries, which have fought several wars over Muslim-majority Kashmir — which is divided between the two.