Pakistan, India accuse each other of waves of drone attacks

THE DEADLY confrontations between the nuclear-armed India and Pakistan continued with both countries accusing each other on Thursday (8) of carrying out waves of drone attacks, as the global community calls for calm and de-escalation.

The fighting comes two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing a terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Kashmir, which Pakistan denied.

India launched missiles on Wednesday, it said targeted "terrorist camps", and Pakistan retaliated with a barrage of artillery strikes, with at least 48 deaths reported on both sides since the escalation, 32 of them in Pakistan including children.

Pakistan's army claimed it shot down 28 Indian drones, while New Delhi accused Islamabad of launching overnight raids with "drones and missiles", and claimed it destroyed an air defence system in Lahore.

"Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets... using drones and missiles," India's defense ministry said in a statement Thursday, adding that "these were neutralized".

The ministry claimed that Pakistani military attempted last night to target Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj.

Many schools in border towns of India have been closed as a precautionary measure.

The defense ministry said earlier its military had "targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan".

Blasts heard in Lahore

Pakistan's military said on Thursday it had neutralized 28 out of 29 Israeli-made Harop drones that crossed into the country in "another act of aggression by India".

Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar said the drones "made attempts to attack military installations" and "targeted civilians", killing one and injuring four, while four army personnel were also wounded.

Among the cities targeted was Rawalpindi, where the Pakistan army's headquarter is located.

Residents in Lahore reported hearing the sound of blasts, and aviation authorities briefly shut down operations at the main airport in Islamabad.

Karachi airport remained closed on Thursday evening.

India's defense minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday (7) said New Delhi had a "right to respond" following the Pahalgam attack, when terrorists 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 two countries traded days of threats and diplomatic measures.

Pakistan has denied any involvement and called for an independent investigation into the April 22 attack.

At an all-party meeting on Thursday (8) Rajnath Singh claimed that at least 100 hardcore terrorists and their associates were killed in Indian strikes on terror sites under the ongoing Operation Sindoor.

Widespread destruction

There was trauma on both sides of the disputed border after the exchange of heavy artillery in the darkness on Wednesday.

"A missile struck the mosque nearby, and a piece of shrapnel from the blast pierced my daughter's chest," 50-year-old Safeer Ahmad Awan told AFP in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan Kashmir that was targeted by Indian air strikes.

On the other side of the border, Poonch was bombarded on Wednesday, and bore the brunt of shelling by Pakistan.

Global pressure

Diplomats and world leaders have pressured both countries to step back from the brink.

"I want to see them stop," US president Donald Trump said Wednesday.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday in New Delhi, days after visiting Pakistan, as Tehran seeks to mediate.

In a late Wednesday TV address to the nation, Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif warned they would "avenge" those killed by Indian air strikes.

Jaishankar warned Thursday that any Pakistan military action would be met with "a very, very firm response".

The South Asian neighbors have fought multiple wars over Kashmir since they were carved out of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.