Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 8, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba THRIVE M A N I T O B A GROWING TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY TO BUILD A STRONG MANITOBA Donate Now Online: HarvestManitoba.ca or call 204-982-3581 @HarvestManitoba.ca Scan to Donate to a Mother in Need At 74, Erika has spent a lifetime putting others first. As a single mother, she often went to bed hungry so her son and aging mother would have enough to eat. This Mother's Day, support mothers like Erika with a gift to Harvest Manitoba. You can also honour your mom by making the gift in her name. Your gift provides food, stability, and hope for women who need it most. Please give today to feed tomorrow. This Mother's Day, honour the strength of mothers like Erika. Even today, Erika still turns to Harvest Manitoba for support. A monthly food hamper gives her a sense of security she has craved her whole life. “When you don't know where your next meal is coming from, that's not living. But when you know there's a food bank, you can put your fears to the side a bit.” Erika is deeply grateful. For 11 years, she gave back by volunteering at Harvest Manitoba, calling it her “second home.” She hopes to return one day. “I made sure whatever money I had went into feeding my son and helping my mom.” “We all have to eat. Hunger isn't a button you can push on or off.” 2 out of 3 food bank clients are women. Mothers, grandmothers, and caregivers who are making heartbreaking sacrifices every day. - Erika, Food Bank Client WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● B3 NEWS I WORLD THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025 Pakistan claims to have downed several Indian warplanes I SLAMABAD, Pakistan — India and Pakistan were on the brink of dir- ect conflict Wednesday for the first time since 2019, after India launched its deepest and deadliest strikes inside Pakistan in decades and Islamabad claimed to have downed several Indian warplanes. Pakistan’s government said 21 people were killed in the strikes, including two children; India said it avoided Pakistani military and civilian targets and that the operation was aimed at militants in retaliation for last month’s rampage by gunmen in a popular tourist area in Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir. India linked the April 22 at- tack to Pakistan; Islamabad denied any involvement and has appealed for an international investigation. The overnight attack has rattled Pak- istan, a nation of more than 240 million people, which had braced for Indian military action for weeks but had not anticipated the strikes would reach its heartland. At least 16 of the victims were killed in Pakistan’s Punjab, the country’s most populous and wealthiest province. It was the first such Indian attack on Punjab in more than half a century. While the overnight strikes had echoes of a confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers six years ago, Wednesday’s aerial assault was much more expansive, and its potential con- sequences more far-reaching. In 2019, after a similar militant attack in Kash- mir, India responded with a single strike in a remote part of Pakistan. In the wake of the latest barrage, the countries traded rhetorical blows, with each trying to own the narrative. “The operation was launched to pro- vide justice to the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks and their fam- ilies,” Indian Col. Sophia Qureshi said at a media briefing. “The operation targeted nine terrorist camps, and we fully destroyed them.” Pakistan characterized the attacks as a “cowardly” strike on civilians — and on the nation itself. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a televised address to Parliament that the military had shot down five Indian warplanes, including three French- made Rafales, and officials released a video showing smoke rising from an ap- parent crash site. Sharif said Pakistani planes never entered Indian territory and only shot down the aircraft after they had “delivered their payload.” The claims could not be independently veri- fied and the Indian government did not respond to questions about its alleged losses. “We were ready to pounce on the enemy’s planes and throw them in the sea,” Sharif told Pakistan’s Parliament on Wednesday evening. “The enemy knows about our capabilities,” he con- tinued, appealing for national unity. As night fell in Islamabad, the most pressing question was whether — and how — the country would respond. The United States and China — Pakistan’s most powerful backer — called for mediation Wednesday, but it was un- clear who would take the lead on diplo- matic efforts, or whether the two coun- tries were ready to engage. Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg TV that he was “not aware” of any contact between his country and India at the moment. He also hinted, however, that Pakistan might be willing to de-escalate: “If India backs down, we will definitely wrap up these things,” he said. After Wednesday strikes, Pakistan’s military reported 24 “impacts” across six locations: Ahmedpur East, Muridke and Sialkot in Punjab; and Kotli, Bagh and Muzaffarabad in Pakistani-admin- istered Kashmir. After a meeting of Pakistan’s nation- al security council, military spokes- man Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said the armed forces had been given “full au- thority … to respond at a time, place and manner of their choosing.” He warned that “a full account will be taken for every last drop of innocent civilians’ unjustly spilled blood.” “People in Punjab now want to go fight the Indians,” said Syed Ahsan Raza, a shopkeeper in Ahmedpur East, where Pakistani officials said at least 13 people were killed overnight. Raza said his walls shook when the first strike hit. “People are still in a state of shock and disbelief,” he said. India and Pakistan have fought mul- tiple wars over Kashmir — a Mus- lim-majority territory administered in part by both nations and claimed by both in its entirety — but the re- gion had been relatively quiet since a ceasefire brokered in 2021. Two years earlier, India revoked Kashmir’s semi- autonomous status and launched an extensive security crackdown on mil- itant groups. Tourism began to flour- ish again, drawing visitors from across India, but it came at a cost, according to rights groups, which documented arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings by Indian forces. The tenuous calm was shattered on April 22, when gunmen emerged from the forest and opened fire on tourists in a popular meadow, in an area known locally as “mini Switzerland.” Twenty- six people were killed — 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen — making it the deadliest assault on Indian civil- ians since the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which was carried out by the Pakistan-based militant group Lash- kar-e-Taiba, or LeT. In a media briefing, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India had found evidence linking the militants in Pahalgam to Pakistan, but did not make the evidence public. He blamed the at- tack on the Resistance Front, which India says is an offshoot of LeT, citing social media posts by the group and af- filiated accounts. The group has denied responsibility for the attack. Misri said further attacks against India were forthcoming, according to government intelligence, and that New Delhi’s response was aimed at deter- rence. He did not respond to questions about whether any Indian aircraft had been shot down by Pakistan. India’s embassy in Beijing, however, weighed in on the controversy, respond- ing to a report about the downed planes in Chinese media with a post on X. “We would recommend you verify your facts and cross-examine your sources before pushing out this kind of dis-in- formation,” the embassy wrote. — The Washington Post SHAIQ HUSSAIN, RICK NOACK, KARISHMA MEHROTRA, SHAMS IRFAN, HAQ NAWAZ KHAN K.M. CHAUDARY / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Residents walk through the rubble of a building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Wednesday. ;