Panic in Indian border villages as hundreds flee Pakistani shelling in Kashmir

India and Pakistan were locked in a military stand-off on Wednesday after an exchange of fire sparked panic in border villages and international pleas for calm.

Pakistan vowed to defend itself with "full vigour and force" after Indian missile strikes it described as an "unprovoked act of war". India said it had hit nine terrorist camps as it warned that "borders will no longer protect the enemies of peace".

Dozens were killed as rising tensions over an April 22 attack in Kashmir escalated into their worst military confrontation in years. The missile strikes were followed by artillery fire and Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian jets.

Residents in the frontier town of Poonch, in Indian-administered Kashmir told of panic and houses burning as shelling from Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday forced hundreds to flee or take shelter in bunkers.

“This is the first time I have seen Poonch town being targeted and we have left our home for safety,” resident Mir told The National.

Explosions were heard throughout the night in Poonch, with artillery fire intensifying in the early morning in central parts of the town. Clouds of smoke rose from buildings after munitions fell.

Funerals and protests were taking place in Pakistan on Wednesday, with Indian flags and effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi set on fire. India said it had exercised a “right to respond” to the armed attack in Kashmir last month.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif commended the country's armed forces as he addressed parliament on Wednesday. He said they had been on high alert since India accused Pakistan of supporting the militants behind the Kashmir attack.

World leaders urged two nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to show restraint. The UAE called for "diplomacy and dialogue", while Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke to senior politicians from both countries.

Pakistan said at least 26 people died in missile strikes and five more in artillery fire. India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the attacks were aimed at terrorist camps and were “carried out very thoughtfully and in a measured manner”.

At least eight people were killed, including two children, and 38 were wounded in the subsequent Pakistani attacks carried out in retaliation for missiles launched by India.

The fighting began after 26 people were killed by armed militants in the Pahalgam resort area of Kashmir on April 22, an attack that New Delhi has blamed on Islamabad.

The Resistance Front, an extremist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. India accuses Pakistan of backing militant groups in Kashmir, a charge denied by Islamabad.

The town of Poonch is part of a fortified frontier region on the Indian side of the Line of Control – the de facto border between India and Pakistan.

Hundreds of people – men, women, children and the elderly – were seen fleeing the area on foot or motorbike, many carrying only a backpack, after public transport was suspended. Huge queues formed at fuel stations while ATM kiosks were down and electricity was cut.

Pankaj Sharma, another resident, said he and his family were also leaving to escape the artillery shelling.

An official in Poonch told The National that at least eight people including women and two children were killed in mortar shelling.

Police were using public address systems to ask people to stay indoors, with announcements broadcast from mosques and Sikh temples.

Several other villages in the Indian border districts of Kupwara, Poonch and Rajouri were also hit by mortar fire.

Intense explosions were heard in Wuyen in Kashmir’s Pulwama district, where a suspected Pakistani fighter jet was reported to have crashed. Firefighters were sent to extinguish the blaze. Indian authorities have yet to confirm whether it was a Pakistani jet.

Bashir Ahmad, a resident in Wuyan, said he heard a loud bang at about 2am.

“We have never heard something like this in our entire lives. A fireball kind of thing came and hit the school, which is just a few metres away from our house. Thank God this didn’t fall on our home,” Mr Ahmad told The National.

“We thank God that it happened in the night, otherwise there would have been so many casualties as the wreckage fell on the school where hundreds of children study.”

Residents in the nearby town of Tangdhar said they were moving to underground bunkers.

“This is the heaviest shelling here in recent years,” one man told local media. At least four houses in his neighbourhood had caught fire after being struck by shells, he said.

India's Defence Ministry said the missiles fired as part of its Operation Sindoor were aimed at “terrorist camps” and that the operation was “focused and non-escalatory”. No Pakistani military sites were attacked, the ministry added.

The Indian strikes came as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad as part of mediation efforts.

“It was deemed essential that the perpetrators and planners of the Pahalgam attack be brought to justice,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Mr Misri said there were “impending attacks” planned against India and New Delhi had been compelled to “deter and prevent” them.

Pakistan called the Indian attack an “unprovoked and blatant act of war”. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said five Indian jets, a quadcopter and a drone were shot down by Pakistan during the Indian operation. New Delhi has not yet confirmed this.

The Kashmir region is divided between India and Pakistan but has been claimed by both in its entirety since British colonisers left the subcontinent in 1947. The two nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars over the region, while a three-decade armed insurgency has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.