India slammed Pakistan’s desperate attempt to give a communal twist to the cross-border conflict, accusing it of targeting civilians and places of worship in a deliberate and distorted narrative.

India and Pakistan's latest military conflict has expanded, days after India carried out airstrikes in Pakistan that followed an attack by gunmen on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir last month.

The neighbors have been in conflict over the disputed border region since their independence and partition in 1947.