Photo taken with a mobile phone on Wednesday shows a building destroyed in an Indian missile attack in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.— XINHUA/VNA Photo

NEW DELHI — The Indian government on Wednesday confirmed carrying out air strikes on nine identified "terrorist-training camps" located in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally monitored the air strikes, according to Indian media reports.

The air strikes were carried out under "Operation Sindoor", which was dedicated to the women whose husbands were killed in the Pahalgam area of the Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22, the reports said.

A total of 26 people were killed in last month attack, which was described as the worst attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled Kashmir in past several decades. The incident led to escalating tensions between the two South Asian nations.

India's Ministry of Defence said in a press release that the Indian armed forces launched "Operation Sindoor", hitting "terrorist infrastructure" in Pakistan and the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir from where "terror attacks" against India had been planned and directed.

"Altogether nine sites have been targeted. Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India had demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution," said the statement.

It added these steps came in the wake of the Pahalgam attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22, in which 25 Indian and one Nepali citizen were killed.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest private airlines in India, IndiGo posted on X that its flights to and from certain airports located near international border with Pakistan had been impacted.

On Wednesday, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said that at least eight civilians, including a child, were killed, 35 others injured and two missing after India fired missiles at multiple locations in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan shoots down 5 Indian jets

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has shot down another Indian jet in response to Indian missile strikes at six locations in Pakistan, sources from the Pakistani military said on Wednesday.

This was the fifth Indian jet that has been shot down in response to the Indian overnight strikes, said the military sources, adding that four Indian quadcopters were destroyed at two locations in Pakistan for violating the country's airspace.

Pakistan condemned India's unprovoked and blatant act of war and violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.

In a statement, Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said that the Indian Air Force has violated Pakistan's sovereignty using standoff weapons, targeting civilian population across international border in Bahawalpur and Sheikhupura districts in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, as well as Muzaffarabad, Bagh, and Kotli districts in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.— XINHUA