The Indian army says soldiers from both countries exchanged small arms and artillery at each other overnight. Elsewhere, Meta blocked access to a prominent Muslim account in India at the authorities' request. Follow DW. Death toll in Pakistan rises to 31, military says India says at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling Indian, Pakistani soldiers took aim at each other in Kashmir using small arms and artillery during the night, according to the Indian army Meta has blocked a prominent Muslim Instagram account at the request of the authorities in India Here are the latest developments from the tensions between India-Pakistan on Thursday, May 8: India, Pakistan exchange fire in Kashmir The Indianarmy said its soldiers exchanged fire with the Pakistaniarmy overnight along the de facto border in Kashmir. Small arms and artillery fire were both in use. This comes as the two neighboring countries saw their worst violence in two decades after India launched missile strikes on Pakistan. At least 43 deaths have been reported by both countries since the military escalation between them on Wednesday, with Islamabad saying that 31 civilians had been killed by India's missiles and New Delhi reporting 12 casualties so far. Meta blocks prominent Muslim account in India An Instagramaccount with the handle @Muslim has been blocked in India at the request of the local authorfites, its owners say. Users in India trying to access the account, which has some 6.7 million followers, report receiving a message that the account is not availabie in the country "in compliance with a legal request to restrict this content." Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh, the account's founder and editor-in-chief, called the move "censorship." The accounts of prominent Pakistani actors and cricketers have also been blocked for access in India. Meta declined to comment, with the comany's spokesperson referring news agency AFP to the tech giant's policy for restricting content when governments believe it is "against local law." Pakistan vows retaliation after Indian strike In a nationally televised address on Wednesday night, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif framed India's overnight attack as "cowardly." He said India, "will now have to pay the price." Earlier Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told broadcaster Geo News that Islamabad would only strike Indian military targets and not civilians, in retaliation. Prime Minister said India thought Pakistan would step back, "but they forgot that...this is a nation of brave people." Why is Kashmir contested? When former British India gained independence and was divided into India and Pakistan in 1947, Muslim-majority Kashmir was free to choose which new country to join, or to remain independent. The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, a Hindu ruler of a Muslim-majority state, initially wanted independence but ultimately chose to accede to India after a Pakistani-backed tribal invasion. A war erupted and India asked the United Nations to intervene. The UN recommended that they hold a referendum on whether the state would join India or Pakistan. However, neither country could agree on a deal to demilitarize the region ahead of such a vote. In July 1949, as recommended by the UN, India and Pakistan agreed on a ceasefire line which eventually became the so-called Line of Control (LoC) following an agreement signed in 1972. The region became divided into India-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir plus Gilgit-Baltistan. Adding to the complexity, China also controls a portion (Aksai Chin). Both India and Pakistan still claim full sovereignty over the region. There have been sporadic conflicts between the two sides over the contested region since then, interspersed with periods of de-escalation. But the election of the Hindu-nationalist BJP to power in India in 2014 marked a new period of tension. The BJP government responded to a major attack in 2019 by launching cross-border air strikes. Later that year, it revoked Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy, sparking increased protest within the region that was met with repression. This was followed by a period of relative calm in which Delhi promoted a nascent tourist sector in the region that began to boom until the attack against tourists near the hotspot of Pahalgam on April 22, 2025. Welcome to our coverage On April 22, gunmen killed 26 people, most of whom were tourists, near a resort close to the mountain town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. The Pahalgam attacks have sparked one of the worst crises between India and Pakistan in years. New Delhi and Islamabad downgraded diplomatic ties, and India suspended a key water-sharing treaty with Pakistan. And on Wednesday, India launched "Operation Sindoor," a series of targeted airstrikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. India's military said it struck infrastructure used by militants. At least 43 deaths have been reported so far, with Islamabad saying 31 civilians were killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, and New Delhi adding at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling. This worsening situation highlights the broader impact of last month's deadly Pahalgam attack. We'll track the latest developments and reactions in this blog.