AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The Pakistani defense minister has warned that hostilities between his country and India could escalate into a nuclear confrontation. These comments come after India, on Wednesday, hit multiple targets across Pakistan in the most extensive attacks in decades. To help us understand what is happening, we have got NPR's Diaa Hadid on the line. She covers both Pakistan and India from her base in Mumbai. Hi, Diaa.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So can you just bring us up to date on what has been happening up until now?
HADID: Right, so overnight in South Asia, India struck at a number of places in Pakistan and said it was in response to an attack that happened in April where gunmen killed 26 people. The attack happened in a part of the Himalayan territory of Kashmir that's controlled by India. Other parts of Kashmir are controlled by Pakistan. Now, Pakistan denies it has any connection to the attack and says last night's strikes killed 31 people. And today, the Pakistani prime minister's office described the strikes as an act of war and says Pakistan reserves the right to respond. And that leads me to the defense minister. His name is Khawaja Asif.
CHANG: And he's warning that things could escalate into nuclear war because both countries have nuclear weapons, right?
HADID: Right. And just to unpack that a bit, Khawaja Asif spoke to Geo. That's one of Pakistan's biggest news channels. Geo only ran a text version of this interview, and that's where Asif says, if India continues to escalate tensions, the conflict could spiral into nuclear confrontation. Now, Geo has not publicly released the tape of the interview, but we have seen and heard it.
CHANG: I mean, this sounds really serious.
HADID: Yeah, and it may well be an alarm bell for the international community to intervene more decisively to resolve these tensions. But it's important to say that India is signaling that it doesn't want this to go further. The Indian military itself described these overnight strikes as focused, measured and nonescalatory in nature.
Have a listen to Sushant Singh. He's a lecturer in South Asian studies at Yale University and a former Indian military officer. He says India has made its point.
SUSHANT SINGH: These are just one of the strikes to demonstrate that some kind of revenge has been taken, and Pakistan has been punished in some way.
HADID: He says these strikes are meant for a domestic Indian audience.
CHANG: OK, wait, but is there a risk that things could escalate more from what you're seeing at this point?
HADID: Yeah. Analysts say Pakistan may launch its own military strikes for two reasons. First, because India struck places in Pakistan that it hasn't hit in more than 50 years, not since a war in 1971. And a Pakistani security analyst, Abdullah Khan (ph), tells me, the army may need to show deterrence by striking back into India.
ABDULLAH KHAN: Pakistan will have to show its capability and credibility. So we might see some strikes from Pakistani sites happening deep inside India.
CHANG: Deep inside India - what does he mean there?
HADID: Well, he means that Pakistan may have to strike the heart of India somewhere further than Indian-held Kashmir. But there's another reason, too, why analysts say strikes may happen. That's because India suspended a decades-old water treaty between the two countries after the militant attack in April. And Pakistan says one of the Indian strikes last night targeted part of a hydroelectric dam. Now, India hasn't commented on that, but from the Pakistani point of view, what they're afraid of is India trying to wreak havoc with its water supplies, which it sees as an existential crisis. So Khan, that security analyst, says Pakistan may feel the need to show force now unless the international community steps in.
KHAN: I think international community can avert it if they convince India to respect this water treaty because that is considered very serious in Pakistan.
CHANG: OK, so we've been talking about Pakistan's side of all this, but what is happening in India? Like, what are officials there saying?
HADID: Right. Well, officials tell us that Pakistani shelling into Indian-administered Kashmir have killed 15 people, and they've also damaged a gurdwara, a house of worship for Sikhs. People there are stocking up on fuel in case they have to flee. And there were also drills held across the country to prepare emergency services in case of an escalation. So now we're waiting to see what Pakistan will do.
CHANG: That is NPR's Diaa Hadid. Thank you so much, Diaa.
HADID: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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