Two days after India struck terrorist targets in Pakistan – specifically the groups Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen – in retaliation for a deadly civilian attack in Kashmir, the two nuclear powers have spiraled into a conflict that brings them ever closer to war.

Shortly after nightfall on Thursday, May 8, the Pakistani army launched its offensive with a barrage of missiles on Indian Kashmir, targeting military posts in Jammu, Pathankot, Udhampur and Jalandhar, all along the international border. India imposed a complete blackout in 15 cities in Kashmir, as well as in the border state of Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan. Sirens wailed everywhere, and public service workers' leave was canceled, especially for those in the police and health sectors. All schools in Kashmir were closed.

Indian villages – Uri, Poonch, Kupwara – along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, were evacuated. The capital, Srinagar, was plunged into darkness, its airport placed on high alert, but it was the city of Jammu that was particularly targeted. Pakistani forces launched a wave of drones and missiles on the second-largest city of Kashmir, also a Hindu enclave in this majority Muslim region. Most of the attacks were reportedly thwarted by Indian defenses.

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