RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: Pakistan’s army said yesterday 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.
Pakistan’s military said in a statement Thursday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple locations across the country.
“Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan’s 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.
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 6:00 pm (1300 GMT), while Islamabad and Lahore were briefly shut “for operational reasons”.
Pakistan and India 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, India’s 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 organisation – 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.
India said on Wednesday, it had destroyed nine “terrorist camps” in Pakistan in “focused, measured and non-escalatory” strikes.
Islamabad said Wednesday that 31 civilians were killed by Indian strikes and firing along the border.
New Delhi said 13 civilians and a soldier had been killed by Pakistani fire.
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. – AFP
