India-Pakistan confrontation of May 2025 and its toll on Punjab

Who: The governments and armed forces of India and Pakistan, and the people of the border districts of Punjab on both sides: Amritsar, Ferozepur, Pathankot, Fazilka, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur on the Indian side. Sikh bodies were drawn in, among them the SGPC, the management of Sri Harmandir Sahib and Dal Khalsa.

What: On 22 April 2025 gunmen killed 26 people, mostly tourists, at Pahalgam in Kashmir. On 23 April India put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, closed the Integrated Check Post at Attari and cancelled SAARC visas for Pakistanis. On 7 May India launched Operation Sindoor against nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, four of them in Pakistan's Punjab: Muridke, Bahawalpur, Shakar Garh and a village near Sialkot. India said the targets included camps of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad. Pakistan said mosques and civilians were hit and gave a toll of at least 31. Al Jazeera could verify neither side's claims. Four days of drone and missile fire followed.

On the night of 9 May a drone destroyed by Army air defence dropped debris on a house at Khai Pheme Ke, near Ferozepur Cantonment, and three members of one family were hurt. Sukhwinder Kaur died on 12 May, and her husband Lakhwinder Singh died in a Ludhiana hospital in early August. About 5 am on 10 May the Army said it had destroyed armed drones over Khasa Cantonment, Amritsar, the third attempted attack on the city. Later that day the two armies agreed to stop all firing. On 12 May schools stayed shut in six Punjab border districts and 23 trains had been cancelled.

Where: Punjab's border from Pathankot to Fazilka, Amritsar, the Attari crossing, and Dera Baba Nanak, the Indian shrine linked to Kartarpur Sahib by the corridor.

Why it mattered: The Kartarpur corridor was suspended from 7 May 2025. On 31 July 2026 the government told Parliament it must stay shut because of the present security situation, despite requests from Sikh groups. Sikh jathas did not go to Pakistan for Guru Arjan Dev's martyrdom day or Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death anniversary, although Pakistan exempted Indian Sikhs from its visa cancellations.

The Golden Temple became a dispute. In an interview reported around 20 May, Lt Gen Sumer Ivan D'Cunha said air defence guns had been deployed at Sri Harmandir Sahib. The head granthi, Giani Raghbir Singh, called that "shockingly untrue", and SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said the administration had asked only about switching off lights. Reporting a Dal Khalsa march on 6 June 2025, The Tribune quoted its political affairs secretary, Kanwar Pal Singh, saying Punjab's people do not want war.