India and Pakistan are on the brink of direct conflict 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.

India launched missile strikes on nine alleged terrorist sites in Pakistan early Wednesday morning. The attacks follow in the wake of contentious territorial, political and religious disputes between India and Pakistan that began with the partition of India in 1947 and most recently escalated with an attack by a Kashmiri rebel cell last month that killed more than 20 Indian citizens.