What happened

During the intense India-Pakistan military exchange of 6-10 May 2025 (following India's 'Operation Sindoor' strikes launched after an April 2025 Kashmir attack), Pakistani officials said Indian air and artillery forces shelled the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir beginning at around 01:15 local time on 7 May and continuing for roughly six hours. Pakistan's water and power utility WAPDA reported damage to the hydraulic power unit of an intake gate and to reinforced-concrete de-sander structures (de-sanders 1 and 3), along with a strike on a residential camp and medical facility at the site and a hit to an ambulance. WAPDA's chairman, retired Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani, said the plant's automated control systems had not been damaged, but warned that damage to those systems could have risked triggering flooding along the river corridor from Muzaffarabad to the Mangla reservoir. The roughly 969 MW project, completed in 2018 with Chinese financing and engineering assistance, had already been non-operational since 1 May 2024 after its remaining turbines were shut down due to deteriorating conditions in its headrace tunnel, so the strike did not cause an additional loss of active generation. Pakistan's military spokesman (ISPR) and other officials condemned the strike as a violation of international law governing attacks on civilian water and power infrastructure; no Indian government statement specifically addressing the Neelum-Jhelum strike was identified in the sources reviewed. A ceasefire between the two countries was reached on 10 May 2025.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.