People inspect a damaged mosque following India's strikes in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Two weeks after a deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, India has launched a series of strikes on sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The Indian defence ministry said the strikes - named "Operation Sindoor" - were part of a "commitment" to hold "accountable" those responsible for the 22 April attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, which left 25 Indians and one Nepali national dead.

But Pakistan, which has denied any involvement in that attack, described the strikes as "unprovoked", with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif saying the "heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished".

Sharif on Wednesday said the Pahalgam attack "wasn't related" to Pakistan, and that his country was "accused for the wrong" reasons.

Pakistan's military said at least 31 people were killed and 57 injured in the strikes on Tuesday night. India's army said at least 15 civilians were killed and 43 injured by Pakistani shelling on its side of the de facto border.

Pakistan's military says it shot down five Indian aircraft and a drone. India has yet to respond to these claims.

Late on Wednesday, Sharif said the air force made its defence - which was a "reply from our side to them".

Where did India hit?

Delhi said in the early hours of Wednesday morning that nine different locations had been targeted in both Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan.

It said these sites were "terrorist infrastructure" - places where attacks were "planned and directed".

It emphasised that it had not hit any Pakistani military facilities, saying its "actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature".

In the initial aftermath of the attacks, Pakistan said three different areas were hit: Muzaffarabad and Kotli in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Bahawalpur in the Pakistani province of Punjab. Pakistan's military spokesperson, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif, later said six locations had been hit.

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told GeoTV in the early hours of Wednesday that the strikes hit civilian areas, adding that India's claim of "targeting terrorist camps" was false.

Why did India launch the attack?

The strikes come after weeks of rising tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours over the shootings in the picturesque resort town of Pahalgam.

The 22 April attack by a group of militants saw 26 people killed, with survivors saying the militants were singling out Hindu men.

It was the worst attack on civilians in the region in two decades, and the first major attack on civilians since India revoked Article 370, which gave Kashmir semi-autonomous status, in 2019.

Following the decision, the region saw protests but also witnessed militancy wane and a huge increase in the number of tourists.

The killings have sparked widespread anger in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the country would hunt the suspects "till the ends of the Earth" and that those who planned and carried it out "will be punished beyond their imagination".

However, India initially did not name any group it believed was behind the attack in Pahalgam.

But Indian police alleged that two of the attackers were Pakistani nationals, with Delhi accusing Pakistan of supporting militants - a charge Islamabad denies. It says it has nothing to do with the 22 April attacks.

On 7 May, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group carried out the attack.

In the two weeks since, both sides had taken tit-for-tat measures against each other - including expelling diplomats, suspending visas and closing border crossings.

But many expected it would escalate to some sort of cross-border strike - as seen after the Pulwama attacks which left 40 Indian paramilitary personnel dead in 2019.

Why is Kashmir a flashpoint between India and Pakistan?

Kashmir is claimed in full by India and Pakistan, but administered only in part by each since they were partitioned following independence from Britain in 1947.

The countries have fought two wars over it.

But more recently, it has been attacks by militants which have brought the two countries to the brink. Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an armed insurgency against Indian rule since 1989, with militants targeting security forces and civilians alike.

In 2016, after 19 Indian soldiers were killed in Uri, India launched "surgical strikes" across the Line of Control – the de facto border between India and Pakistan - targeting militant bases.

In 2019, the Pulwama bombing, which left 40 Indian paramilitary personnel dead, prompted airstrikes deep into Balakot - the first such action inside Pakistan since 1971 - sparking retaliatory raids and an aerial dogfight.

Neither spiralled, but the wider world remains alert to the danger of what could happen if it did. Attempts have been made by various nations and diplomats around the world to prevent this.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres quickly called for "maximum restraint" - a sentiment echoed by the European Union and numerous countries, including Bangladesh.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged "dialogue" and "de-escalation".

US President Donald Trump - who was one of the first to respond - told reporters at the White House that he hoped the fighting "ends very quickly". US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said he was keeping a close eye on developments.

With Pakistan-India, Trump turns back to cautious US diplomacy

President Donald Trump has been shaking up how the United States does business in the world. But with the violence between Pakistan and India, Trump has marked a return to a traditional, and even cautious, diplomacy.

The United States across successive administrations has sought to build ties with India and Trump voiced solidarity after suspected Islamist gunmen killed 26 people in  Indian-administered Kashmir, nearly all Hindus.

Trump did not criticize India after it carried out retaliatory strikes against Pakistan but has pleaded for a quick resolution.

"It's so terrible," Trump said Wednesday. "I get along with both. I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop."

India briefed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also interim national security advisor, on the overnight strikes.

After the Kashmir attack, Rubio spoke to Pakistan's prime minister to urge condemnation and cooperation but also asked India's foreign minister to avoid escalation.

Lisa Curtis, who was the National Security Council senior director on South Asia during Trump's first term, said the United States remained unique in its influence on both sides.

"There are other countries that are worried and may be in touch with their Indian and Pakistani counterparts, but when it comes down to it, it is the role and responsibility of the United States to help the countries find a face-saving way out of the crisis," said Curtis, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also ordered strikes after a deadly attack, which was against soldiers rather than civilians.

Mike Pompeo, then Trump's secretary of state, later said that he defused tensions after an Indian official contacted him to voice suspicion that Pakistan was readying a nuclear strike.

"I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration," Pompeo wrote in his memoir.

- Leverage with Pakistan -

India blames Islamabad for the attack and points to remarks beforehand by Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir who called Kashmir -- the Muslim-majority Himalayan region divided between the powers -- as Pakistan's "jugular vein."

Pakistan denies responsibility for the attack.

Former president Joe Biden had little patience for Pakistan, keeping it at arm's length as he fumed over Islamabad's role in the two-decade Afghanistan war.

Pakistan was stunned late in Biden's term when his deputy national security advisor, Jon Finer, called its long-range missiles "an emerging threat" to the United States, Islamabad's Cold War-era military partner.

Trump on returning to the White House quickly invited Modi but Pakistan has also reached out, arresting a purported perpetrator of the 2021 suicide bombing in Kabul on US troops, with Trump trumpeting the move in an address to Congress.

"One of the motivating factors for Pakistan to de-escalate this situation is in order to have a better relationship with the United States," Curtis said.

Manjari Chatterjee Miller, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the United States faced a dilemma on its public stance.

"If the United States government were to be seen as either unsupportive of India or interfering in any way in Kashmir, it would be a serious setback to the US-India partnership. But the risk of escalation between two nuclear-armed neighbors is also real," she wrote in an essay.

- Placing priorities -

Trump has largely sidelined career diplomats since his return, relying on his friend Steve Witkoff to crisscross the globe.

Trump has so far failed in his quest to quickly end the Ukraine war and Israel has ended a Gaza ceasefire with Hamas, with Witkoff still pursuing diplomacy with Iran and recently reaching a deal with Yemen's Huthi rebels.

"The Trump administration has several global crises to deal with currently and would like to avoid another one right now," said Aparna Pande, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute.

"The Trump administration would also like the focus to remain on trade and commerce and the competition with China and any conflict detracts India, a partner in this endeavor, away from these efforts," she said.