‘Slippery slope’: How will Pakistan strike India as tensions soar?

On Wednesday evening, as Pakistan grappled with the aftermath of a wave of missile strikes from India that hit at least six cities, killing 31 people, the country’s military spokesperson took to a microphone with a chilling warning.

“When Pakistan strikes India, it will come at a time and place of its own choosing,” Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a media briefing. “The whole world will come to know, and its reverberation will be heard everywhere.”Two days later, India and Pakistan have moved even closer to the brink of war.

On Thursday, May 8, Pakistan accused India of flooding its airspace with kamikaze drones that were brought down over major cities, including Lahore and Karachi. India confirmed the drone assault, but said it was responding to a provocation from Pakistan — missiles and drones launched towards cities and air defence systems in India and Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan denied that charge, and subsequent accusations of missile and drone attacks on parts of Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday night.With Pakistan denying any missile or drone strikes against India, Chaudhry’s warning of upcoming retribution remains alive, hovering over the 1.6 billion people of South Asia, 17 days after armed gunmen killed 26 male civilians in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, triggering the current escalation.

Experts say how Pakistan responds will likely be shaped by its desire to demonstrate that it can hurt India, without pushing the crisis over the edge into a full-blown conflict.

“We are still far away from a war, but we are much closer than we were 24 hours ago,” said Christopher Clary, assistant professor of political science at the University at Albany.