ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Indian officials on Saturday said they would consider de-escalation if the other nation reciprocated, amid the worst fighting between the nuclear-armed rivals in decades.

India hit Pakistan with air strikes and missiles on Wednesday and since then both countries have been clashing daily through drones and missiles and gunfighting on the Line of control, the de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region between them. At least 50 have been killed on both sides.

In the latest confrontation, Pakistan Military Spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said early on Saturday India had attacked three bases in Pakistan with missiles, after which it had targeted multiple bases in India in response, including a missile storage site in India’s north.

India said there was limited damage to equipment and personnel at air force stations in the Udhampur, Pathankot, Adampur and Bhuj areas. The military said there were several high-speed missile attacks on several air bases in Punjab, and that India had responded to the attacks.

Five civilians were killed in attacks in the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir, regional police said.

Speaking to Pakistani news channel Geo News, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said Islamabad would consider de-escalation if New Delhi stopped further attacks.

“We responded because our patience had reached its limit. If they stop here, we will also consider stopping,” Dar said, adding that he had conveyed the same message to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke with him after speaking to New Delhi hours ago.

Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said India was committed to “non-escalation.”

“Indian armed forces reiterate their commitment to non-escalation, provided it is reciprocated by the Pakistan military,” she said.

“Pak military has been observed to be moving their troops into forward areas, indicating offensive intent to further escalate the situation. Indian armed forces remain in a high state of operational readiness.”

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri rejected Pakistan military’s claims that it had destroyed several air force stations in India and caused serious damage to military sites and critical infrastructure during the overnight strikes.

The Group of Seven (G7) major countries urged India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue while the US government said it had offered assistance in starting “constructive talks.”

After a call on Friday between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, the US State Department said Rubio offered US assistance “in starting constructive talks in order to avoid future conflicts.”

Rubio has held regular calls with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar since the end of April.

Latest tensions by Pakistan and India were triggered by a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam resort town that killed 26 people on April 22. New Delhi has said Islamabad was involved, which denies the allegation and said it is willing to participate in a transparent and credible inquiry.

Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations, having fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, a region split between them, since gaining independence from the former British colonial rule in 1947.

Both nations acquired nuclear weapons in 1998.

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan’s latest military conflict has expanded, days after India carried out airstrikes in Pakistan that followed an attack by gunmen on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir last month.
The two nuclear-armed rivals have exchanged artillery shells, gunfire, missiles and drones, killing civilians on both sides and raising concerns of a wider war.
The fresh round of confrontation is yet another escalation of a decades-long conflict over the disputed Kashmir region that began after a bloody partition of India in 1947.
Here’s a look at the troubled legacy of Partition that has dictated the future course of India-Pakistan relations:
PARTITION CREATED TWO NEW NATIONS
In August 1947, Britain divided the Indian Sub-continent, its former colony, into two countries — Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The fate of Kashmir — then a princely state — was left undecided.
Excitement over independence was quickly overshadowed by some of the worst bloodletting that left up to 1 million people dead as gangs of Hindus and Muslims slaughtered each other.
IT DIVIDED MILLIONS OF FAMILIES
Creating two independent nations also tore apart millions of Hindu and Muslim families in one of the world’s largest peacetime migrations.
Many fled their homes and lost their property, never imagining that they would not be able to return.

At least 15 million people were displaced.
BOTH NATIONS LAY CLAIM OVER KASHMIR
Within months, both India and Pakistan laid claim over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region.
Kashmir’s Hindu ruler wanted to stay independent, but local armed uprisings flared in various parts of Kashmir, along with a raid by tribesmen from Pakistan. It forced the monarch to seek help from India, which offered military assistance on condition that the kingdom link itself to India.
The Indian military entered the region soon after, with the tribal raid spiraling into the first of two wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. That war ended in 1948 with a UN-brokered ceasefire. Kashmir was divided between the two young nations by the heavily militarized Ceasefire Line that was later named Line of Control.
A UN-sponsored vote that was promised to Kashmiris would have enabled the region’s people to decide whether to be part Pakistan or India. That vote has never been held.

India and Pakistan fought another war, in 1965, and a limited conflict, in 1999, over Indian-controlled Kashmir.
INSURGENCY IN KASHMIR
Kashmiri discontent with Indian rule took root as successive governments reneged on a promise to allow a referendum while largely peaceful movements against Indian control were suppressed harshly.
By 1989, Indian-controlled Kashmir was in the throes of a full-blown rebellion.
India decries the rebellion as Islamabad’s proxy war and state-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies that.
Many Muslim Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle and support the rebel goal that the territory be united, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.