World leaders have expressed concern over the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan after India launched strikes into Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump called the escalations "so terrible" while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, and urged both sides to stop the violence. "My position is, I get along with both. I know both very well and I want to see them work it out," he said, adding that "if I can do anything to help, I will be there." UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was "engaging urgently with both countries" and encouraging "dialogue, de-escalation and the protection of civilians" during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions in parliament. EU Foreign Chief Kaja Kallas said "this war is not good for anybody." She added that Europe is trying to "mediate and bring the tensions down." Pakistani officials said 31 civilians were killed in the Indian strikes on Pakistan's Punjab province and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. India said it attacked infrastructure allegedly used by militants who carried out a massacre of tourists in Kashmir last month. India said its strikes Wednesday targeted at least nine sites in Pakistan linked to planning terrorist attacks against India. In response, Pakistan's air force shot down five Indian fighter jets, its military said. Tensions have risen since 22 April, when gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, in India-controlled Kashmir. India accused Pakistan of backing militants who carried out the attack, something Islamabad has denied. Early on Thursday, Pakistan's air defense shot down an Indian drone near a naval air base in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistani police and security officials said. India also evacuated thousands of people from villages near the two countries' highly militarized frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir. The incident could not be independently verified, and Indian officials did not immediately comment. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed overnight to avenge the killings but gave no details, raising fears of a broader conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. In London, Pakistan protesters gathered outside the High Commission of Indian on Wednesday, calling for peace between the two countries. "We want the world to know that we want peace, we want to say no to war," said Naheeda Nasir, who attended the protest. Its organizer, Tariq Mahmood, said "my sympathies with the family who have lost their loved ones, right, but it doesn't justify India to go and attack innocent people in Pakistan." — Euronews
