2025 India–Pakistan conflict

Significance

Operation Sindoor marked the first direct Indian missile strikes on Pakistani territory within the broader Kashmir conflict that began in 1947. India framed the strikes as a response to the Pahalgam attack of 22 April 2025, in which 26 civilians were killed in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and cited Pakistani support for cross-border terrorism as justification. Pakistan denied those accusations. The episode represented a significant escalation between the two nuclear-armed states, with senior political and military leadership on both sides — including Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif and their respective chiefs of defence — directly engaged. Indian casualties were recorded at 400. The result of the conflict was not conclusively recorded, but the exchange marked a threshold in the decades-long dispute over Kashmir, moving from proxy and insurgent-level confrontation to direct state-on-state missile strikes.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (6)