PAKISTAN have vowed to take revenge for “every drop” of blood spilt in their raging conflict against India.
The nuclear-armed neighbours are now teetering on the brink of an all-out war as lethal Indian missile strikes continued overnight with dozens reportedly left dead.
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In a televised address to the nation, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said 26 people had been killed in the latest round of enemy strikes.
A seven-year-old boy was among the victims, the PM added.
Sharif then gave a chilling threat to the Indian government as he said: “I promise that we will take revenge for every drop of blood of these victims.”
He also called on Pakistanis to show “courage” in the face of evil across the border.
Pakistan’s military has already made a number of threats against India speaking about an escalation to the fighting.
Sharif also repeated claims that his men have shot down several Indian fighter jets – including three French-made Rafales.
He went on to lash out and say it “took only a few hours” to bring the Indian military “to its knees” in a revenge blitz.
It comes as US President Donald Trump spoke on the ongoing battle and said he is prepared to do “anything to help”.
Sir Keir Starmer also told Parliament Britain is now “engaging urgently” with both of the Commonwealth countries.
The prime minister said he is “encouraging dialogue” and urging “de-escalation”.
India and Pakistan are being urged to step back from armageddon as a nuclear war between the two rivals could kill up to 125 million people.
Peace campaigners like the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons are “gravely concerned” and have called for the two sides to step back from the brink.
India and Pakistan only have small stockpiles of nuclear weapons compared to Russia or America – but they have a viscous rivalry and longstanding feud over Kashmir.
New Delhi is estimated to have 170 nuclear warheads and can deliver them through land, sea, or air.
Islamabad was last officially thought to also have 170 weapons – but that could have grown that arsenal to around 200.
Colonel Philip Ingram, a former British Army commander, said the West will be particularly nervous about a nuclear conflict.
Ingram told The Sun: “Western intelligence in particular will be focused on the readiness and the outloading of nuclear stocks inside both Pakistan and India and monitoring what’s happening to them very closely indeed.
“The worrying thing about these two nations is that the tensions are very real.”
What is the Kashmir conflict about?
THE region of Kashmir has always been a contentious issue even before India and Pakistan won their independence from Britain.
But the current conflict stems from how the region was split up as the two countries were gaining independence.
Indian troops took two-thirds of Kashmir, while Pakistan seized the northern third.
Since then, two wars have been fought between the two countries and the row has developed into one of the most intense geopolitical rivalries on earth.
There are about 16 million people in Kashmir, split between the Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled zones.
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