India said on early Wednesday that it has car ried out Operation Sindoor hitting terrorist infra structure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. India targeted the terror infrastructure from where terrorist attacks have been planned and directed, the Army said. As this paper went to print at 2.45 am, reports spoke of a huge explosion in Srinagar. Its sources could not be confirmed. Altogether, nine sites have been targeted, it said. ”Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been target ed. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” the Indian Army said. ”These steps come in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were murdered. We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable,” it said. In a high-level meeting with the top defence brass, Prime Minister Modi on April 29 gave the armed forces “complete opera tional freedom” to decide on the mode, targets and timing of the response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Modi also empha sised the national resolve to deal a “crushing blow to terrorism”. In Islamabad, the Pakistan Army claimed that India had launched air strikes against the country in early Wednesday, vowing to respond to the attack. A Reuters report said multiple loud explosions were heard in several places in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday. After the explosions, power was blacked out in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, wit nesses said. It was not immediately clear what the explosions were. Pakistan Army spokesman Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that missile strikes were fired by India at Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Bahawalpur in Punjab. “Some time ago, India launched air strikes on Subhanullah mosque in Bahwalpur’s Ahmed East area, Kotli and Muzaffarabad at three places from the air,” he told ARY News channel. “All of our air force jets are airborne. This coward ly and shameful attack was carried out from within India’s airspace. They were never allowed to come and intrude into the space of Pakistan, he said. “Let me say it unequivo cally: Pakistan will respond to this at a time and place of its own choos ing. This heinous provoca tion will not go unan swered,” he added. He said that damage assessments are ongoing and that he would provide more information later. This “temporary happi ness” that India has achieved with this attack will be replaced with enduring grief, he added. Earlier in the day. United Nations Security Council member nations told Islamabad to sort out the Kashmir dispute bilateral ly, thwarting Pakistan’s attempt to internationalise the situation in Kashmir in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack. At a closed-door consul tation, the UNSC called for de-escalation and dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad as several mem ber nations came down heavily on Pakistan and posed tough questions over the terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) operating from its soil, according to a news agency report. The UNSC members nations pointed out to Islamabad that tourists were gunned down after segregation based on reli gion, and condemned the Pahalgam terror attack in the Kashmir Valley that took place April 22, in which 26 people lost their lives. Islamabad was told that its nuclear rhetoric and missile tests were escalating tension with India. Also, Pakistan’s “false flag” narrative accusing India was soundly reject ed, the reports suggested