Pakistan’s military has launched a substantial counteroffensive against India, targeting, what Islamabad calls, multiple Indian military sites in retaliation for a major Indian military attack earlier this week and its follow-up strikes.

The Pakistani operation, code-named Bunyan Marsoos (Solid Structure) after a Quranic verse, went underway on Saturday.

So far, it has specifically targeted missile stations and airfields, Islamabad reported, while saying the targets were involved in prior attacks on “Pakistani civilian” and military sites.

Tensions between the neighbors have been spiraling radically since April 22, when a terror attack hit the town of Pahalgam in the Indian-administered Kashmir, claiming the lives of at least 26 tourists.

It was followed by Indian authorities finding Pakistan responsible for the incident and taking a number of punitive measures against Islamabad, including by suspending a major water treaty. Pakistan began responding by denying any involvement and taking countermeasures of its own such as suspending issuance of visas to Indian nationals, closing its airspace to Indian airlines, and test-firing several long-range missiles.

New Delhi followed those measures by staging Operation Sindoor against Pakistan and the Pakistan-administered Kashmir, targeting “terrorist infrastructures” there.

Pakistan says the operation has seen India fire air-to-surface missiles from warplanes, striking three Pakistani airbases.

Also on Saturday, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority announced closure of the country’s airspace from 03:15 AM local time (22:15 GMT) to 12:00 PM (07:00 GMT) in response to the alleged missile strike.

'India's BrahMos missiles in crosshairs'

Commenting further on Bunyan Marsoos, Pakistan’s military said the operation was aimed at halting India’s ongoing strikes and defending Pakistan’s sovereignty.

It identified the targets as a number of Indian military sites, including a BrahMos missile storage facility in Beas, located in Punjab Province, and multiple airfields across the Line of Control (LoC), which separates the Pakistan-administered Kashmir from the Indian-administered Kashmir.

The BrahMos missile, a supersonic weapon with a range of up to 800 kilometers (497 miles), is one of India’s key strategic assets. Pakistan’s operation has specifically targeted these installations, citing alleged concerns over their involvement in strikes against “Pakistani civilians, religious sites, and military infrastructure.”

Sources within Pakistan’s military, meanwhile, said that since the onset of the Indian operation, Pakistan had downed more than 80 Indian drones across the Pakistani airspace. India is yet to comment on these remarks.

The military further stated that it reserved the right to take defensive measures under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, asserting that India’s actions were “unprovoked and without evidence” linking Pakistan to any terrorism activities within India.

The overall situation has additionally featured intense cross-border shelling intensifying in regions like Sialkot in Punjab, Pakistan, and multiple sectors along the LoC.

In major Pakistani cities, including Lahore and Karachi, residents have also been cited as saying they had heard multiple explosions.

Pakistani PM discusses ‘nuclear assets’ with civilian, military leaders

Amid the flareup, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened an emergency meeting with the country’s top civilian and military leaders to assess the situation. The meeting included discussions on national security and Pakistan’s nuclear assets.

The United Nations and other international bodies have repeatedly called for de-escalation between the countries, urging both sides to engage in dialog to address the root causes of the situation at hand.