SINGAPORE: At least 38 people died as India and Pakistan clashed in Kashmir on Wednesday (May 7).

After India launched missile strikes on Pakistan, the two sides exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested northern border.

The worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours in two decades came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir that left 26 people dead.

Pakistan has rejected the accusation and called for an independent probe into the killings.

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Here is how Pakistan has responded to the crisis.

"HEINOUS"

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif labelled India's strikes a "heinous act of aggression" that would "not go unpunished".

The country's National Security Committee (NSC), which convened an emergency meeting led by Sharif and attended by Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, called on the international community to hold India "accountable".

"The NSC calls upon the international community to recognise the gravity of India's unprovoked illegal actions and to hold it accountable for its blatant violations of international norms and laws," the committee said in a statement released by its Prime Minister's Office.

The committee said that India "had ignited an inferno in the region", and that Pakistan would respond to the strikes "at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty".

The committee also emphatically rejected India's allegations that there are terrorist camps on Pakistani territory.

"RETALIATION HAS ALREADY STARTED"

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, meanwhile, 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."

Pakistan said that 21 civilians were killed in India's strikes – including four children – while five were killed by gunfire at the border. India said that at least 12 people were killed by Pakistani shelling.

Pakistani military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that five Indian jets had been downed across the border, while an Indian senior security source said that three of India's fighter jets had crashed on home territory.