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South Africa’s Dewald Brevis hit a 22-ball fifty as Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by two wickets on Wednesday, leaving the defending IPL champions in grave danger of missing the playoffs.Chasing 180 for victory, Chennai slipped to 60-5 in the sixth over before Brevis hit 52 and impact substitute Shivam Dube made 45 to steer the team home with two balls to spare at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.Skipper M.S. Dhoni hit a six when Chennai needed eight off the last over and finished unbeaten on 17 with number 10 Anshul Kamboj hitting the winning four off Andre Russell.The result left Kolkata’s chances of making the playoffs hanging by a thread as they need to win their remaining two matches and hope other results go their way.”It was really tough,” Kolkata skipper Ajinkya Rahane said of the defeat. “We were 10-15 short, 185-195 would have been an ideal total. The bowlers bowled really well but tough to be on the losing side.On the way forward, Rahane said, “Pretty simple. Try to win two out of two, and then see what happens from there.”Five-time champions Chennai had already bowed out of the playoff race.Afghanistan spinner Noor Ahmad set up victory with his four wickets that kept Kolkata down to 179-6.In reply, Chennai openers Ayush Mhatre and Devon Conway both fell for ducks but IPL debutant Urvil Patel clobbered the Kolkata attack in his 11-ball 31.Spinner Varun Chakravarthy bowled Ravindra Jadeja but Brevis and Dube put the chase back on track in their carefully crafted stand.Brevis took his time to get going before he blasted 30 runs off Vaibhav Arora, reaching his fifty with three sixes and three fours in one over.Chakravarthy soon cut short Brevis’ blitz, but the left-handed Dube then found Dhoni for company.- Fans for Dhoni -Arora dismissed Dube as Rinku Singh clung on to a steepling catch before taking another opportunity to dismiss Noor, but Dhoni and Kamboj got the team through to just their third win in 12 matches.The 43-year-old Dhoni still remained the biggest draw for the Kolkata crowd and the former India captain who played down talk of imminent retirement, saying he would entertain his fans as long as he can.”A lot of them don’t know when it is going to be my last time, so they want to come and see me play,” said Dhoni.”After this IPL is over, I have to work hard for another six to eight months to see if my body can take this pressure. (There’s) Nothing to decide now but the love and affection I have seen is excellent.”Earlier Kolkata lost opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz early on 11 before Sunil Narine (26) and Rahane, who made 48, put on 58 runs to rebuild the innings.Noor broke the stand with left-arm wrist spin to get Narine stumped by Dhoni and three balls later had Angkrish Raghuvanshi caught behind for one.Rahane was joined by Manish Pandey but was denied his fifty by Jadeja’s left-arm spin, spooning a reverse sweep to backward point.Pandey stood firm and combined to add 46 with Russell, who hammered 38 off 21 balls before Noor struck again to have the big-hitter caught at long-off.Player of the match Noor removed Rinku for nine and despite Manish’s presence Kolkata’s total ultimately proved insufficient.Noor moved to 20 wickets in 12 matches alongside this season’s leading bowler Prasidh Krishna — Gujarat Titans pace bowler who also has 20 scalps but in 11 matches. 

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier 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 43 deaths were reported, with Islamabad saying 31 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.The South Asian neighbours have fought multiple wars over the divided territory since they were carved out of the sub-continent after gaining independence from British rule in 1947.The Indian army said “justice is served”, reporting nine “terrorist camps” had been destroyed, with New Delhi adding that its actions “have been focused, measured and non-escalatory”.Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to “shore up” his domestic popularity, adding that Islamabad “won’t take long to settle the score”.Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said five Indian jets had been downed across the border overnight.An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, said three of its fighter jets had crashed on home territory.- 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 Pakistan-administered 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 has denied any involvement in the Pahalgam assault.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif labelled India’s strikes a “heinous act of aggression” that would “not go unpunished”.On Wednesday night, Pakistan military spokesman Chaudhry said the rise in the death toll was due to “India’s unprovoked firing at the Line of Control and ceasefire violations.””Every last drop of the blood of innocent Pakistani civilians killed will be avenged,” he said.- ‘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.”We are moving to a safer place… we are homeless now,” added 24-year-old Tariq Mir, who was hit in the leg by shrapnel. Residents collected damaged copies of the Koran from among concrete, wood, and iron debris.In Indian-administered Kashmir, residents fled in panic from the Pakistan shelling.”There was firing from Pakistan, which damaged the houses and injured many,” said Wasim Ahmed, 29, from Salamabad village. “People are fleeing.” – Global concern -India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the Pahalgam attack on April 22 that killed 26 people, mainly Hindu men, which it blamed on Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.The two nations have traded days of threats and tit-for-tat diplomatic measures, while Pakistan has conducted two missile tests.The Indian army has reported nightly gunfire along the heavily militarised Line of Control that separates the region since April 24.”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 and world leaders have piled pressure on both countries to step back. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump called for a halt to the fighting, adding “if I can do anything to help, I will be there.”Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected in New Delhi late on Wednesday, two days after a visit to Islamabad, as Tehran seeks to mediate. Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.India regularly blames Pakistan for backing armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.burs-pjm/ecl/fox/aha/bgs

Rohit Sharma rose from humble beginnings to captain cricket-mad India and redefined Test batting with his ability to score big hundreds as he dominated opposition attacks.The 38-year-old called time on his Test career on Wednesday after playing 67 matches and scoring 4301 runs including 12 centuries since his debut in 2013.Rohit quit T20 international cricket in 2024 after lifting the World Cup and earlier this year led India to an ODI Champions Trophy title in Dubai.He will continue to play the ODI format but his declining batting form in the five-day format prompted his decision to call time on a career divided into two halves.As a youngster Rohit studied on a scholarship because his family was unable to afford monthly fees of a few dollars.He overcame all odds to become a cricketing superstar, especially in the white-ball game, his feats including taking his country to World Cup glory in 2024.He is also the only batsman to have scored three double-centuries in one-day internationals.Prior to his drop-off in form, Rohit gave India real firepower at the top of the innings and his selfless approach allowed the rest of the batsmen to play freely.But the man dubbed the “Hitman” for getting to big scores quickly in spectacular style failed to get past 10 runs in any of his five innings during India’s tour of Australia late last year.He described his performances as “disturbing” while there was also mounting criticism about his decisions as captain.Rohit missed the first Test in Perth for the birth of his second child, with Jasprit Bumrah assuming the captaincy and playing a starring role with the ball in a big India win.With India trailing 2-1 in the series, vice-captain Bumrah was named to lead the team at the Sydney Cricket Ground as the visitors battled to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Indian media mockingly noted that Rohit’s 31 runs in three Tests was only one more than the Bumrah’s 30 wickets.”Rohit, because of captaincy and reputation… managed to hang on longer than he should have,” the Times of India wrote.- ‘Hero’ -Rohit was also way below his brilliant best in the 3-0 Test series whitewash at home to New Zealand in November.Just months before that, he lifted the World Cup in Barbados after India edged out South Africa by seven runs in a thrilling final to finally deliver the cricket-crazy nation a global title again.Rohit signed off as India’s highest scorer in the shortest format, plundering 4,231 runs including five centuries in 159 matches since his T20 debut in 2007.A five-time IPL winner for Mumbai Indians, Rohit took over the captaincy of the white-ball national team in 2021 from Virat Kohli.A year later, Rohit became Test skipper too.He left a lasting legacy in the shortest format, having featured in all nine editions of the T20 World Cup.He was part of M.S. Dhoni’s winning team in the inaugural event in 2007, before clinching his second T20 crown 17 years later.Rohit, who has been criticised for not having the athletic physique of some other players, has also amassed 11,168 runs at an average of over 48 in 273 ODIs.But his Test record is less prolific as he only came into his own in 2019 when he revived his stop-start five-day career as an opener, hitting 176 and 127 against South Africa in the first Test in Visakhapatnam.In the third match of the same series in Ranchi, Rohit hit 28 fours and six sixes in a blistering innings of 212 which remained his highest Test score.However his recent shortcomings have not detracted from Rohit’s stature around the world. Former England captain Michael Vaughan lauded him as the “man who has changed the culture” of the India team — and a “genuine hero”.

India captain Rohit Sharma on Wednesday announced his retirement from Test cricket ahead of the team’s tour of England starting next month, but will continue to play the shorter 50-over format.In 67 Tests, Rohit scored 4,301 runs including 12 centuries with a best of 212 against South Africa in 2019 and an average of over 40. He captained India in 24 Tests with 12 wins, nine defeats and three draws.”Hello everyone I would just like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket,” the 38-year-old Rohit wrote on Instagram.”It’s been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years. I will continue to represent India in the ODI format.”Rohit, who quit T20 internationals alongwith Virat Kohli after India’s World Cup triumph in Barbados last year, recently led the team to an ODI Champions Trophy title in Dubai.India will begin a five-Test series in England in June-July and the team now needs a new Test skipper.India’s cricket board said, “Rohit Sharma has informed us of his decision to retire from Test cricket. A legend of the red-ball game.””We will soon announce a new Test captain — it’s time for the next generation to rise.”Rohit’s last Test was in Melbourne last year when India lost to Australia by 184 runs.He stood down as captain in the fifth Test in Sydney due to poor batting form but India went on to lose the match and the five-match series 2-1.Jasprit Bumrah was Rohit’s deputy in Australia and led the team in the first Test, which Rohit missed due to the birth of his second child, and the final Test.- ‘Priceless’ -Rohit managed just 31 runs in five innings of his three outings Down Under and the Indian media speculated that he could retire from Test cricket after the series.The captain, nicknamed ‘Hitman’ for getting to big scores quickly — especially in white-ball, also had a poor home series against Bangladesh and New Zealand late last year.Rohit’s India won both the Tests against Bangladesh, but New Zealand handed a rare 3-0 whitewash to the hosts.Rohit began his Test career in 2013, but it was five years later that he came into his own in the five-day format as a swashbuckling opener and later took over as captain from Kohli.”As player and as captain, you were a joy and India will say a big thank you to you,” veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle posted on social media.”That century in Chennai, that one at the Oval, both priceless. You walked out against South Africa to open as if you had done it all your life. Will look forward to watching and, hopefully calling, some more great moments in your ODI career.”After India’s defeat in Australia, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) mandated national players to participate in the domestic Ranji Trophy, forcing Rohit and Kohli to take field.Rohit’s batting woes continued as he made three and 28 against Jammu and Kashmir, but he was retained as captain of the ODI team.Rohit is currently playing the Indian Premier League T20 tournament with Mumbai Indians and has endured a patchy season so far, scoring 300 runs in 11 matches.

A mosque in the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir stood half collapsed as daylight broke on Wednesday, its aged caretaker killed in a strike by India in the darkness.It was one of six sites struck by New Delhi in what it said was retribution for a militant attack on its side of divided Kashmir last month, a deadly strike that it accuses Islamabad of backing. “There were terrible sounds at night, there was panic among the people,” said Muhammed Salman, who lives next door to the destroyed Bilal Mosque in Muzzaffarabad.Several houses were damaged in the attack and the neighbouring school was closed on Wednesday, like all others across the region and in neighbouring Punjab province, after it was also hit.”The children are very scared. We couldn’t leave our place during the night but now we are moving to the house of our relatives,” said 52-year-old mother Jamila Bibi.Torn copies of the Koran were carefully collected by worshippers from among the debris of iron roof sheets, collapsed wooden beams and metal rods at the Bilal Mosque.United Nations military observers arrived at the site to inspect it on Wednesday. Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, rivals since their painful partition nearly 80 years ago, have exchanged heated threats and border gunfire for days since the April 22 attack on civilians in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.India’s strikes overnight were expected and, according to its army, targeted “terrorist sites”.Pakistan responded with heavy artillery fire along the de facto border in Kashmir and said it had also shot down five jets inside India.The South Asian countries reported around 40 people were killed in total.”We are moving to a safer place… We are homeless now,” said  24-year-old Tariq Mir, who lives near the Bilal Mosque and was struck by shrapnel. The 70-year-old caretaker of the mosque was buried on Wednesday in a funeral attended by more than 600 people, an AFP journalist witnessed.In Bahawalpur, in Punjab near the Indian border, Ali Muhammed was also jolted awake. “We were sleeping when we heard an explosion,” he said, standing among dozens of onlookers, most still on their scooters, observing the damage to the city’s Subhan mosque that was also hit.Indian intelligence agencies say the mosque is linked to groups close to the jihadist movement Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is suspected of carrying out the April 22 attack that killed 26 people.Repeating rhetoric broadcast daily on television, radio, and social media by the military, Ali Muhammed said: “We know how to respond… we are not weak.””We are a nuclear power.”

Sri Lanka’s leftist government won local council elections but with significantly lower margins, in its first test since sweeping national polls last year, official results showed on Wednesday.President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s coalition received the most votes in 265 out of the 339 councils, but fell short of an outright majority in about half of them.The main opposition SJB won just 14 councils, while the country’s main minority Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, performed better, winning 35.The parties of former presidents Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa failed to win control of a single council, but between them secured 1,123 of the 8,299 council seats.The leftist NPP will need the support of other parties to control about 130 councils where it fell short of an absolute majority, but has ruled out any coalition with traditional parties.Dissanayake’s NPP vote share fell to 43.3 percent, down from the 61.6 percent it secured at the November parliamentary election. The main opposition SJB made a marginal gain, reaching 21.7 percent, up from 17.70 percent.Dissanayake, who upset the more established parties to win the September presidential election, built on his popularity to secure the parliamentary vote held two months later.The 56-year-old has made a U-turn since coming to power on his pledge to renegotiate the terms of an unpopular IMF bailout agreed by his predecessor, and has maintained high tariffs.He had turned the local elections into a referendum on his six-month-old administration, saying it was essential for his party to secure local councils so that all layers of government were “free of corruption and endemic waste”.About 60 percent of the 17.14 million electorate turned out to vote on Tuesday, down from nearly 70 percent in November and 80 percent in the September presidential vote.The campaign was lacklustre, with no high-profile figures in the running.

At dawn Wednesday on the contested border between India and Pakistan, in the usually sleepy Indian-run town of Poonch, a thumping explosion ripped the air as an artillery shell smashed into a building.Red flames shot high in the sky, and black smoke towered high.India launched missile strikes against arch-rival Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday, two weeks after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed Kashmir.Pakistan reported that at least 26 civilians were killed in the strikes.The strikes escalated repeated nighttime gunfire between Indian and Pakistani soldiers across the de facto border — known as the Line of Control — in the contested Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Buildings shook and glass shattered as the two vast armies duelled with heavy artillery across the line.At least 12 people were killed and dozens wounded on the Indian side in Poonch, according to local government official Azhar Majid.In the hours before sunrise on Wednesday, the crump of explosions echoed over the town — both incoming from Pakistan and Indian fire in response.The power went out and air raid sirens wailed, as flares fired into the sky lit up the town, AFP reporters saw.As the explosions grew louder and more frequent, some took the risk to flee and others hunkered down in basements, seeking what shelter they could find.Calls echoed from the mosque loudspeaker warning people to stay indoors.As dawn broke, AFP reporters heard the sound of vehicles as residents took their chance to escape.During a lull in gunfire, hundreds of people trekked out of Poonch — by car and on foot. Stores on the road leading away from the town did brisk business as people rushed to buy food — stocking up for when they can find somewhere safe to hunker down.

Pressure is mounting on record Indian Premier League signing Rishabh Pant with Lucknow Super Giants badly needing their captain to find his brilliant best with the bat if they are to have any chance of making the playoffs.Wicketkeeper-batsman Pant has flopped since Lucknow splashed $3.21 million on him at the November auction, scoring just 128 runs from 10 innings this IPL season.Despite Pant’s reputation as a swashbuckling left-hander who can destroy opposition bowling, the 27-year-old has only made one score of note, 63 against Chennai Super Kings on April 14.His usually infectious free spirit has deserted him as the runs dried up and he was out again cheaply on Sunday, making just 18 as Lucknow lost by 37 runs to Punjab Kings.”Watching him, you always feel that he enjoys his cricket. We haven’t seen that this time around. Haven’t seen him smiling, laughing, being jovial, being relaxed,” the Australian former wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist said on website Cricbuzz.com.”Maybe it is the responsibility of the captaincy, coming into a new franchise with that highest price tag over his head. “Just don’t see that spark in him. Something is missing,” he added.Another defeat on Friday for Pant and Lucknow against Royal Challengers Bengaluru would almost certainly end their chances of finishing in the top four and reaching the playoffs.- Bidding war -Even if they were to win all three of their remaining matches, Lucknow would still need other results to go their way to finish in the top four.Pant has drawn comparisons with his hero Mahendra Singh Dhoni and former India opener Virender Sehwag said Pant could reach out to India’s World Cup-winning captain for inspiration and advice.”I think Rishabh Pant should go back and watch his old IPL videos. That will remind him how he used to build his innings, how he used to play his shots. Sometimes you forget your old routines,” said Sehwag. “He idolises Dhoni — maybe he should call him and talk.”Pant returned to the IPL last year as captain of Delhi Capitals after almost losing his life in a car crash in December 2022.He came back with a bang, amassing 446 runs at an average of 40.55 but Delhi did not make the playoffs and the two parted ways.Back on the market, Pant was subject of a fierce bidding war before Lucknow got their man, breaking the previous record of $2.98 million paid for Mitchell Starc in 2023.Super Giants coach Justin Langer called Pant a “character that can lift a team”.Pant was part of India’s T20 World Cup-winning side in 2024 but lost his place as first-choice wicketkeeper in the 50-over Champions Trophy earlier this year.Former Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch suggested that the burden of juggling three roles — captain, batsman and wicketkeeper — could be why Pant’s batting has suffered.”It’s probably very tough to lead a team while also keeping wickets,” Finch said on JioHotstar.”You only get a few seconds to talk to your bowlers, maybe 10 to 15 seconds between overs, especially with the over-rate clock running.”

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier in Kashmir on Wednesday in a major escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.The latest crisis erupted after New Delhi launched missile strikes on its arch-rival, with deaths subsequently reported on both sides.New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 men were killed.Islamabad rejects the charge. The two sides have fought multiple conflicts — ranging from skirmishes to all-out war — since their bloody partition in 1947.- 1947: Partition -Two centuries of British rule ends on August 15, 1947 with the sub-continent divided into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.The poorly prepared partition unleashes bloodshed that kills possibly more than a million people and displaces 15 million others.Kashmir’s monarch dithers on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule.After the suppression of an uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He seeks India’s help, precipitating an all-out war between the countries. A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (480-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divides Kashmir.- 1965: Kashmir -Pakistan launches a second war in August 1965 when it invades India-administered Kashmir.Thousands are killed before a September ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States.- 1971: Bangladesh -Pakistan deploys troops in 1971 to suppress an independence movement in what is now Bangladesh, which it had governed since 1947 as East Pakistan.An estimated three million people are killed in the nine-month conflict and millions flee into India.India invades, leading to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh. – 1989-90: Kashmir -An uprising breaks out in Kashmir in 1989 as grievances at Indian rule boil over. Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians are killed in the following decades.India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training.- 1999: Kargil -Pakistan-backed militants seize Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains. Pakistan yields after severe pressure from Washington, alarmed by intelligence reports showing Islamabad had deployed part of its nuclear arsenal nearer to the conflict. At least 1,000 people are killed over 10 weeks.- 2019: Kashmir -A suicide attack on a convoy of Indian security forces kills 40 in Pulwama.India, which is busy with campaigning for general elections, sends fighter jets which carry out air strikes on Pakistani territory to target an alleged militant training camp.One Indian jet is shot down over Pakistani-controlled territory, with the captured pilot safely released within days back to India.

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier on Wednesday, after New Delhi launched missile strikes on its arch-rival in a major escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.Dead were reported on both sides. Pakistan said Indian strikes had killed at least eight people, and India said Pakistani artillery fire had killed three civilians along the de facto border in contested Kashmir.New Delhi announced it had carried out “precision strikes at terrorist camps” at nine sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in Punjab state, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed region.The Indian army said “justice is served”, with New Delhi adding that its actions “have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to “shore up” his domestic popularity, but said that Islamabad had struck back.”The retaliation has already started”, Asif told AFP. “We won’t take long to settle the score.”- ‘Shelling raining down’ -Islamabad reported eight civilians — including one child — killed in the strikes, and AFP correspondents in Pakistani-run Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, troops cordoned off streets around a mosque Islamabad said was hit by a strike, with marks of explosions visible on the walls of several homes.Shortly after, India’s army accused Pakistan of “indiscriminate” firing across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, with bursts of flame as shells landed, AFP reporters saw.”Three innocent civilians lost their lives”, the Indian army said, adding it was responding in a “proportionate manner”.”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. “I saw shelling raining down… two persons were wounded”.Wreckage of an Indian fighter jet was seen by an AFP photographer at Wuyan — on the Indian controlled side of Kashmir.An security source confirmed it was an Indian aircraft, but the reason for its crash, and the fate of the pilot, was not immediately known.India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir by gunmen it said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.That assault left 26 people dead, mainly Hindu men, in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam. No group has claimed responsibility.New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the LoC, according to the Indian army. Pakistan also said it has held two missile tests.- ‘Maximum restraint’ -The violence is a dangerous escalation between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.Diplomats have piled pressure on leaders to step back from the brink of war. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement, adding that Guterres called for “maximum restraint.”US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he hoped that the fighting “ends very quickly”.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to top security officials in both New Delhi and Islamabad since the strikes.Rubio said he was monitoring the situation “closely” and that he would “continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution”.India’s army said it had “demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”, adding that “no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted”.Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, calling the Indian attack “unprovoked” and “cowardly”, said the “heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished.”Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.India regularly blames its neighbour for backing armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after a visit to Islamabad, as Tehran seeks to mediate. India was also set to hold several civil defence drills Wednesday, while schools in Pakistan’s Punjab were closed, local government officials said.The strikes came just hours after Modi said that water flowing across India’s borders would be stopped. Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an “act of war”.burs-pjm/tym