The countries have fought two of their three full-scale wars over Kashmir, a disputed territory that both claim in full but administer separate portions of since gaining independence from British rule in 1947.
Drone strikes
“Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets... using drones and missiles,” India’s defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday, adding that “these were neutralised”.
The defence ministry said earlier its military had “targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan”, adding it had destroyed an air defence system in Lahore, Pakistan’s second city.
On Thursday evening, explosions were reported at the airport of Jammu, a key city in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, a security source who was not authorised to speak to the media told AFP, without giving furt,er details.
Pakistan denied that it had launched any strikes on India on Thursday, with the top military spokesman terming India’s drone strikes a “phantom defence”.
Blasts in Lahore
Pakistan termed India’s drone attacks “another act of aggression”, and said it had neutralised 28 out of 29 Israeli-made Harop drones that crossed into the country on Thursday.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the drones “made attempts to attack military installations” and “targeted civilians”, killing one and injuring four, with four army personnel also wounded.
Among the cities targeted was Rawalpindi, where the military is headquartered and the cricket stadium is hosting the Pakistan Super League.
Residents in Lahore reported hearing the sound of blasts, and aviation authorities briefly shut down operations at the main airport there and in the capital, Islamabad.
‘Shrapnel pierced her chest’
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said New Delhi had a “right to respond” following the 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.
Pakistan’s military said on Wednesday that 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.
There was trauma on both sides of the disputed border after the exchange of heavy artillery in 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-administered Kashmir that was hit by Wednesday’s Indian strikes.
“It was only when her clothes were soaked in blood that we discovered the injury,” he added of the 15-year-old girl, who still had the metal lodged in her body.
On the other side of the border in Poonch, a town in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir that was bombarded by Pakistan on Wednesday, Madasar Choudhary said his sister saw two children killed.
“She saw two children running out of her neighbour’s house and screamed for them to get back inside,” said Choudhary, 29.
“But shrapnel hit the children - and they eventually died.”
Global pressure
Diplomats and world leaders have pressured both countries to step back from the brink.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with leaders of both countries Thursday and urged “immediate de-escalation,” his spokeswoman said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi, days after visiting Pakistan, as Tehran seeks to mediate.
Pakistani authorities insist they have the right to retaliate to India’s initial strikes.
In a late Wednesday TV address to the nation, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned they would “avenge” those killed by Indian air strikes.
“We make this pledge, that we will avenge each drop of the blood of these martyrs,” he said.
-Agence France-Presse
