On April 22, 2025, militants killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir. Over the next two weeks, India-Pakistan tensions rose as the Indian government alleged “cross-border linkages” to Pakistan and retaliated by downgrading ties with Islamabad and suspending the Indus Waters Treaty. The crisis intensified in the early hours of May 7, when India launched Operation Sindoor with strikes on “nine terrorist camps” in Pakistan. The four-day war that followed included border shelling and skirmishes, air combat, drone deployment, standoff strikes, and information warfare, representing the most serious confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbors in decades. The conflict concluded on May 10, when India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire agreement reportedly facilitated by the United States. One year after the May 2025 conflict, South Asian Voices editors have collected contributions reflecting on the crisis and the path forward for India-Pakistan relations and the wider region.
