It's an act of war

PAKISTAN'S prime minister insists it will hit back at India in response to yesterday's barrage of deadly missile attacks, calling them an act of war.

- CHRIS HUGHES

Tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours is at breaking point after strikes on nine targets in the early hours of Wednesday that Pakistan says killed 26 people and injured 46.

Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif said: "Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India."

And the country's national security committee said Pakistan reserved the right to respond in self-defence, at a time, place and manner of its choosing. There were claims a further five people died in Pakistan from Indian shelling later yesterday.

India claimed it had aimed at terrorist infrastructure, hitting the Pakistani plotters behind an attack in an Indian part of Kashmir on April 22.

In the attack by five gunmen, 26 tourists were slaughtered, most of them Indians. India accuses Pakistan of being behind the atrocity, which was claimed by a militant group calling itself Kashmir Resistance.

India has said the group is linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, supposedly disbanded Pakistani militants.