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The EU on Wednesday called on India and Pakistan to take “immediate steps’ to de-escalate after India fired missiles into Pakistani-administered territory in several locations in what Pakistan’s leader called an act of war.

At least 34 people were reported killed – Islamabad said twenty-six civilians were killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, while New Delhi said at least 12 died from Pakistani shelling, the Indian army said. 

India’s defence minister says strikes on Pakistan were ‘right to respond’

India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that missile strikes against Pakistan were a “carefully planned” operation that exercised New Delhi’s “right to respond”.

“The targets we had chosen were destroyed with great precision and sensitivity, ensuring that no civilian population or area was affected,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

“We only targeted terror camps, exercising our right to respond to the attack on our soil.”

Pakistan said 21 civilians were killed in the strikes, with five more deaths reported in cross-border gunfire that followed.

Among the dead were four children, including two three-year-old girls, according to officials in Islamabad.

India-Pakistan situation very concerning, says EU’s Foreign Policy Chief

The India-Pakistan situation is very concerning, EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on ahead of a meeting with European foreign ministers in Warsaw, adding that EU was trying to mediate and bringing tensions down

Foreign airlines cancel and divert flights

Airlines including United Airlines and Korean Air re-routed or cancelled flights and about a dozen Indian airports were shut after India staged a reprisal attack on Pakistan that raised fears of an escalation.

Images from flight tracking websites showed a long line of airlines passing over Oman, UAE and Kuwait after the attack, raising the possibility of airspace congestion.

Authorities in Pakistan said 57 international flights were in the country’s airspace when India struck. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said India’s action “caused grave danger to commercial airlines” belonging to Gulf countries and “endangered lives”.

Pakistan later said its airspace was open following closure after the attacks and that its airports were “fully functional.”

Images from FlightRadar24 showed some civilian jets flying over Pakistan airspace but India’s northwest continued to be deserted.

India dismisses report of Pakistan downing jets as ‘disinformation’

The Indian Embassy in China dismissed as “disinformation” a social media post on X by China’s state-run Global Times, which said that Pakistan had shot down Indian fighter jets.

The embassy’s statement followed the Global Times post, which said that the Pakistan Air Force had downed Indian fighter jets in response to Indian missile strikes on Pakistan.