As tensions flared once again between India and Pakistan in early May 2025, it was not just the military personnel who suffered at the hands of Indian aggression but innocent civilians who paid the heaviest price. In the early hours of May 7, India carried out missile and drone strikes across 6 locations in Pakistan, including cities in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). According to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), close to 31 civilians including women and children out of 40 were killed, and over 70 were injured.
One of the youngest victims who should not be forgotten was seven-year-old Irtaza Abbas Turi, son of a serving Pakistani Army officer, who lost his life in Muzaffarabad. However, while he may be the one who went noticed as one of the youngest casualties of war, let’s not forget that many of the other civilian casualties have gone unnoticed. Strikes hit residential neighbourhoods and places of worship, including Masjid Bilal and Masjid Subhan. The ISPR reported that the attacks were unprovoked and deliberately targeted civilian populations rather than military assets.
While military responses and strategic signaling dominated headlines, the lives of those like Irtaza were reduced to statistics. In the fog of war, civilian tragedies too often go unnoticed. The repeated targeting of neighborhoods, religious sites, and even critical infrastructure such as Pakistan’s Nauseri Dam shows a disturbing disregard for civilian safety and international humanitarian law.
Their deaths served as a painful reminder that real peace would remain elusive until both nations placed the sanctity of civilian life above all else. Those who had no part in the conflict should never have borne its most devastating consequences.
