Pakistan says it downed 25 Indian drones after attacks escalate tensions

Pakistan’s military says it shot down 25 Indian drones that entered its airspace, as hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours continue to spiral following Indian air raids on multiple locations within Pakistan’s territory.

Pakistani Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the military spokesperson, said on Thursday that Indian-made Israeli Harop drones had been deployed to targets including Karachi and Lahore.

“Indian drones continue to be sent into Pakistan airspace … [India] will continue to pay dearly for this naked aggression,” Chaudhry said. The military said one civilian was killed and four Pakistani soldiers were wounded as a result of the drone incidents.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Thursday that any further military action by Pakistan will be considered an “escalation”, adding that Islamabad will be considered responsible for any attack on Indian infrastructure. Earlier, India said that Pakistan had attempted to engage military targets with missiles and drones, but that the Indian military had thwarted the attacks.

India’s army said it “neutralised” attempts by Pakistan to “engage” several military targets in its northern and western regions on Wednesday night and early Thursday. It targeted air defence systems in several locations in Pakistan, India’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement, adding that 16 people were reported killed as a result of Pakistani fire.

Pakistan said India’s attacks killed at least 31 civilians on Wednesday.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told the Reuters news agency that no military sites or the air defence system in the country’s second-largest city of Lahore sustained any damage from Indian drones. India said its army struck and damaged air defence radars and systems at multiple locations in Pakistan.

Thursday’s exchanges and back and forth came claims and counterclaims came a day after India said it launched precision strikes on what it called “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told an all-party meeting on Thursday that “100 terrorists” had been killed; the claim could not be independently verified.

New Delhi’s operation followed a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago, which killed 26 people. India blamed Islamabad for the attack – a charge Pakistan strongly denies.

Escalation on the ground

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday in which he reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “national security, operational preparedness, and citizen safety,” his office said.

“Ministries are ready to deal with all kinds of emerging situations,” the statement said.

Reporting from New Delhi, Al Jazeera’s Neha Poonia described the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) – the de facto border in Kashmir – as deteriorating rapidly. “There’s been a significant escalation in the manner in which the two armies are engaging,” she said.

The Indian army said 13 civilians had been killed, 59 injured, and one soldier had also died in the exchanges. Villages near the LoC have emptied, with residents fleeing or sheltering in bunkers.

“We haven’t seen this kind of civilian movement in years,” Poonia noted.

Amid the security crisis, 20 airports across northern India have been closed until at least May 10, severely affecting travel and commercial activity.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said Karachi airport will be closed until 6pm (13:00 GMT), while the airports at Islamabad and Lahore were briefly shut “for operational reasons”.

‘Act of war’

From Islamabad, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reported that the Pakistani military has accused India of endangering civilian and aviation safety with repeated airspace violations.

Hyder also noted a new point of contention: India’s release of water into the Chenab river. Islamabad sees this as a breach of longstanding agreements, an “existential threat” and “an act of war”.

“Pakistan’s parliament, with cross-party consensus, has now authorised a military response,” Hyder said, pointing to mounting fears of a wider war.

After Wednesday’s strikes, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised to retaliate, raising fears that the two countries could be headed towards another all-out conflict.

But in a sign that India and Pakistan may be looking to temper the escalation, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told the Reuters news agency on Thursday that there has been contact between the offices of the national security advisers of Islamabad and New Delhi.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia and Iran have sent their foreign ministers to New Delhi and Islamabad in a bid to mediate.

‘Pakistan will respond’

As India and Pakistan both accuse each other of provocation, analysts suggest Pakistan is under pressure to deliver a strong response to India’s actions.

“India’s limited objectives are met,” said Happymon Jacob, director of the Council for Strategic and Defence Research in New Delhi, speaking to Al Jazeera. “Pakistan has a limited objective of ensuring that it carries out a retaliatory strike to save face domestically and internationally. So, that is likely to happen.”

Jacob predicted the exchange may evolve into a few rounds of cross-border missile or artillery fire, similar to past confrontations.

Security analyst Hassan Khan told Al Jazeera that the Pakistani government and military are under pressure to respond decisively.

“Pakistan will respond and the people expect that response to be harder than what the Indians have done,” he said from Islamabad. Khan predicted Pakistan could target multiple Indian installations using missiles while avoiding crossing the LoC.