NEW DELHI (AFP) — India’s government said Thursday that Pakistan had launched an air attack using “drones and missiles” overnight, before New Delhi retaliated to destroy an air defense system in Lahore.
“Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets... using drones and missiles,” the defense ministry said in a statement, adding that “these were neutralized” by India’s air defense systems.
Pakistan’s army said Thursday it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades.
“Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan’s military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said from the army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi, where a drone was downed.
“One managed to engage in a military target near Lahore,” he said, adding that four troops in the city were injured.
He earlier said the operation was ongoing.
One civilian was killed and another injured in Sindh as a result of the drone incidents.
Crowds gathered at crash sites, some close to army installations, to gaze at the debris.
Blasts could be heard across Lahore.
The Civil Aviation Authority said Karachi airport was closed until 6 p.m., while Islamabad and Lahore were briefly shut “for operational reasons.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border.
“We will avenge each drop of the blood of these martyrs,” Sharif said, in an address to the nation.
At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged gunfire overnight in Kashmir, New Delhi said Thursday.
“Debris of Israeli-made Harop drones is being recovered from various areas across Pakistan,” Pakistan Armed Forces said.
India said it had destroyed nine “terrorist camps” in Pakistan in “focused, measured and non-escalatory” strikes, two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on tourists in the Indian-administered side of disputed Kashmir — a charge Pakistan denies.
At least 43 deaths have been reported from both sides of the border following Wednesday’s violence, including children from both nations.
Islamabad said 31 civilians were killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, and New Delhi said there were at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling.
Pakistan’s military also said five Indian jets had been downed across the border, but New Delhi has not responded to the claims.
An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, said three of its fighter jets had crashed on home territory.
Meanwhile, Meta has banned a prominent Muslim news page on Instagram in India at the government’s request, the account’s founder said Wednesday, denouncing the move as “censorship” as hostilities escalate between India and Pakistan.