The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border.
At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children.
Photo: AP
Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country.
“Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman 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.
New Delhi said Pakistan had launched an air attack using “drones and missiles” overnight, before India retaliated to destroy an air defense system in Lahore.
“Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets ... using drones and missiles,” the Indian Ministry of Defence said in a statement, adding that “these were neutralized” by India’s air defense systems.
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 6pm, while Islamabad and Lahore were briefly shut “for operational reasons.”
Pakistan and Indian have fought several wars over the Muslim-majority disputed region of Kashmir — divided between the two, but claimed in full by both.
“We will avenge each drop of the blood of these martyrs,” Sharif said, in an address to the nation.
Speaking after the Wednesday missile strike, Indian Minister of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said New Delhi had a “right to respond” following an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Kashmir last month, when gunmen killed 26 people, mainly Hindu men.
New Delhi blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba — a UN-designated terrorist organization — for the Pahalgam shooting, and the nations traded days of threats and diplomatic measures.
Pakistan has denied any involvement and called for an independent investigation into the April 22 attack.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar told parliament late on Wednesday that Chinese J-10C jets were used to shoot down five Indian fighter jets along the border, including French-made Rafale jets, the Associated Press of Pakistan news service cited him as saying.
India’s government has not officially confirmed whether aircraft it deployed in the military strike in the early hours of Wednesday morning were destroyed.
Dar said it kept Beijing informed about the military action soon after the strikes began, with Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong (薑再冬) visiting Pakistan’s foreign office at 4am on Wednesday.
However, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it was “not familiar with the matter” when asked whether Chinese jets were involved in the India-Pakistan conflict.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Reuters
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