The Pakistan-based leader of a militant group has said 10 of his relatives have been killed in a missile strike by India.
Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), said his older sister and her husband, his nephew and his nephew’s wife, his niece and five children from his family were killed in a strike on a mosque in Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
India launched strikes on sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Tuesday night. Islamabad called the strikes a “heinous act of aggression”.
India said it acted in response to a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago that killed 25 Indians and one Nepali. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack.
Indian police alleged that two of the attackers were Pakistani nationals, with Delhi accusing Pakistan of supporting militants – a charge Islamabad denies.
India said it targeted sites on Tuesday night “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed”.
Pakistan said six locations have been hit, but denies India’s allegations of these being terrorist infrastructure.
India said JeM’s headquarters in Bahawalpur, 100km inside Pakistan, was hit.
Video footage of the mosque, assessed by BBC Verify, showed one of its domes had collapsed and extensive damage occurred inside, including two holes in the roof and one in the ground.
In Bahawalpur on Wednesday, crowds were mourning those killed in the strikes overnight in funeral processions through the streets.
Local residents told the BBC they were angry about the attack, but also worried about Pakistan’s potential response.
Azhar founded JeM in 1999 upon his release from prison in India. JeM has been linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban, the UN Security Council has said. The UN designated Azhar as a terrorist in 2019.
India blamed an attack on Indian parliament in 2001 on JeM – a claim JeM denies. Pakistan banned the group soon after that.
JeM said it carried out a bomb attack in February 2019 that killed 40 paramilitary police in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Pakistani authorities said India’s strikes on Tuesday night killed 31 people. Indian authorities said at least 15 civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling.
The escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours has prompted urgent calls for restraint from the international community.
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