SRINAGAR : In a significant escalation along the volatile frontier, Pakistani forces initiated a series of indiscriminate firings late Sunday night across multiple sectors of the Line of Control (LoC), spanning from North Kashmir’s Kupwara and Baramulla to the lowland stretches of Akhnoor in Jammu region, according to Indian military officials.
“On the intervening night of May 4 and 5, 2025, Pakistani military units engaged in deliberate and unprovoked gunfire using small arms across several sectors facing Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri, Mendhar, Naushera, Sunderbani, and Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Lieutenant Colonel Suneel Bartwal, Defence Spokesperson of the Northern Command.
The Indian Army, he confirmed, issued a swift and calibrated response, ensuring effective containment while maintaining operational restraint.
The border flare-up comes as the region remains on high alert following the brutal April 22 massacre in Pahalgam, where 26 individuals — primarily visiting tourists — lost their lives in a terror attack attributed to cross-border actors.
Since April 24, gunfire from Pakistani positions has erupted at intervals along the LoC, beginning in the Kashmir Valley and now spreading across multiple sectors.
These aggressive maneuvers follow a string of provocative actions by Islamabad. On April 24, in retaliation to India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan took a series of hostile steps: closing its airspace to Indian flights, sealing the Wagah border, halting bilateral trade, and issuing a statement warning that any diversion of water under the treaty would be treated as an “act of war.”
The spike in hostilities has prompted high-level security deliberations in New Delhi. On Sunday, Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the country’s military readiness.
Sources indicated their conversation focused on strategic options in the aftermath of the Pahalgam bloodshed. Just hours prior, Indian Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi had also conferred with the Prime Minister concerning the evolving maritime dynamics in the northern Arabian Sea.
