In the early morning hours of May 7, the unlikely but threatened happened. In what it called “non-escalatory” and “preemptive” strikes, India hit several cities and towns not only in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, but also Pakistan proper—the first such incursions since the 1971 war.
Indian leaders and media had been baying for blood, most recently, since the April 22 terror attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi responded with brimstone rhetoric and suspended the World Bank-brokered Indus Water Treaty of 1960, vowing to desiccate its neighbor. It has provided no evidence of Pakistan’s involvement, and refused the proposal for an impartial international investigation.
Pakistan says India hit seven places overnight, killing 26 and injuring 46 civilians, and also damaged the Neelum-Jhelum dam. India says it struck nine “terrorist camps” without any casualties. Islamabad responded to the attacks immediately. Shooting broke out across the de facto Kashmir border, at least five Indian fighter jets were downed, and an Indian Army brigade headquarters was flattened. The sleep-deprived subcontinent is bracing for more ahead.
This is a rare moment when Pakistan is widely recognized as being on the right side of global opinion and history. Its next moves are critical to maintain this.
The government has organized press inspections of the hit sites, and kept its statements relatively restrained. It has unblocked social media platform X, because apparently that matters in the war of narratives. It has promised a further military response at a time and place of its choosing. It is rallying support from the world community, which has issued disappointingly rote calls for peace and dialogue, little realizing that Pakistanis, made indivisible by Indian aggression, want their government to do more.
Principally, what will support Pakistan in this time of fresh crisis are transparency and full disclosure. Islamabad must navigate the fog of war and present all that has happened dispassionately and objectively, highlighting the humanitarian toll of India’s actions. It must show itself as the good-faith, sober, aggrieved party, which abides by and respects international law. Let the war baiting, hysteria, and triumphalism belong to India.
It is time to own the truth without varnish, and ensure the world sees the Indian step-up for what it is: unjust and criminal. Pakistan has the legitimate case. It must not be damaged by the pull of the flag and breathless outrage.