Cooper, Tom u.a. 88-Hours War

The India-Pakistan War of May 2025

A volume from the series Asia @ War. The brief but intense military confrontation between India and Pakistan, which lasted less than four days in May 2025, was largely downplayed even ignored. Yet it saw the first combat deployment of some of the most advanced weapon systems currently in service. Dismissed by many commentators as merely another round in the Kashmir conflict, a large-scale cross-border skirmish or even a drone war, the fighting ended with both sides claiming victory and announcing a ceasefire, which was partly brokered by the administration of US President Donald Trump. But beyond the headlines, this war has fundamentally changed relations between the two nuclear powers and will affect security in South Asia for decades to come. The conflict was triggered by a terrorist attack on 22 April 2025 outside Pahalgam in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians, mostly Hindu tourists. The Pakistan-based group, classified as militant by the UN, which initially claimed responsibility for the attack, quickly withdrew its statement, while Islamabad which had staged the event to draw global attention to Kashmir insisted that the massacre was a false flag operation by India. Faced with irrefutable evidence of Pakistan's involvement, New Delhi launched a series of precision retaliatory strikes against several terrorist camps on 7 May. Determined to reassert its control and deter India with its longstanding threats of nuclear escalation, Pakistan miscalculated responding with artillery, missile and UAV attacks on civilian and military targets in Jammu. India's response was swift and measured: a carefully planned operation that neutralised Pakistan's air defences and ensured air superiority. When Pakistan escalated with ballistic missile strikes, India launched a devastating counterstrike that destroyed key command centres within 90 minutes, rendered the runways of several Pakistani air bases unusable, and hit at least one underground nuclear weapons storage facility, demonstrating its clear superiority. Although the 88-hour war had its roots in the long-standing Kashmir conflict, it marked a turning point. For the first time in eight decades of rivalry, India struck back openly, exposed Pakistan's nuclear bluff, and forced a ceasefire on its own terms. Despite Islamabad's subsequent efforts aided by Chinese disinformation and Western misinterpretations to downplay its defeat, the strategic balance between the two nations has been irreversibly altered. Richly illustrated with custom-made colour profiles, maps and diagrams, 88-Hours War provides a comprehensive overview of the background and course of this little-noticed conflict. It combines a detailed analysis of doctrine and technology with a detailed account of the fighting from 7 to 10 May 2025.