VIDEO: Dozens killed as India, Pakistan clash in worst violence in decades

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier on Wednesday after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival, in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours in two decades.

At least 38 deaths were reported, with Islamabad saying 26 civilians were killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, and New Delhi adding at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling.

The fighting came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir, which Pakistan denied.

Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to "shore up" his domestic popularity, but said Islamabad had struck back.

"The retaliation has already started," Asif told the media. "We won't take long to settle the score."

Military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said five Indian jets had been downed across the border.

An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, said three Indian fighter jets had crashed on home territory.

The wreckage of one was seen by an AFP photographer at Wuyan, on the Indian controlled side of Kashmir.

Children among the dead

The largest Indian strike was on an Islamic seminary near the Punjabi city of Bahawalpur, killing 13 people according to the Pakistan military.

A government health and education complex in Muridke, 30 kilometres from Lahore, was blown apart, along with a mosque in Muzaffarabad — the main city of Azak Jammu and Kashmir —- killing its caretaker.

Four children were among those killed in Wednesday's attacks, according to the Pakistan military.

Pakistan also said a hydropower plant in Kashmir was targeted by India, damaging a dam structure, after India threatened to stop the flow of water on its side of the border.

Pakistan had earlier warned that tampering with the rivers that flow into its territory would be an "act of war."

India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the overnight operation was New Delhi's "right to respond" following the attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Kashmir last month.

Pakistan had denied any involvement in the Pahalgam assault and called for an independent probe.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif labelled India's strikes a "heinous act of aggression" that would "not go unpunished" and his National Security Committee called on the international community to hold India "accountable."

'Terrible sounds in the night' 

In Muzaffarabad, United Nations military observers arrived to inspect a mosque that Islamabad said was struck by India. "There were terrible sounds during the night, there was panic among everyone," said Muhammad Salman, who lives close to the mosque.

UN military observers arrive to inspect the site of a damaged mosque after Indian strikes in Muzaffarabad. AFP

In Indian-held Kashmir, residents fled in panic from the Paksitan shelling.

"There was firing from which damaged the houses and injured many," said Wasim Ahmed, 29, from Salamabad village. "They were taken to hospitals in Uri and Baramulla towns. There has been extensive damage here, everything is destroyed, and people are fleeing the area."

'Shelling raining down'

In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, troops cordoned off streets around a mosque Islamabad said was hit, with blast marks visible on the walls of several homes.

A media person films next to a damaged portion of Bilal Mosque after it was hit by an Indian strike in Muzaffarabad. Reuters

Pakistan said 21 civilians were killed in the strikes — including four children — while five were killed by gunfire at the border.

India's army accused Pakistan of "indiscriminate" firing across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir.

A father and a son who live in a village near the Line of Control between India and Pakistan. AP

"We woke up as we heard the sound of firing", Farooq, a man in the Indian town of Poonch, told the Press Trust of India news agency from his hospital bed, his head wrapped in a bandage.

At least eight Indians were killed and 29 others wounded in Poonch, local revenue officer Azhar Majid told the media from the town's hospital.

Indian soldiers walk along a street in Wuyan near Jammu and Kashmir's main city of Srinagar after a loud explosion was heard on Wednesday. AFP

'Maximum restraint'

"Escalation between India and Pakistan has already reached a larger scale than during the last major crisis in 2019, with potentially dire consequences", International Crisis Group analyst Praveen Donthi said.

Diplomats have piled pressure on leaders to step back.

"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

Agencies