dpa
New Delhi/Islamabad
India has reportedly attacked air defence systems at several locations in Pakistan as international concern grows over further escalations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Germany and the other 26 EU states have called on both sides to de-escalate immediately. The current crisis was sparked by a militant attack last month in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 mostly Indian tourists.
India blamed Pakistan, which has denied any role, and called for an independent probe. In response to the attack, the Indian military struck several Pakistani targets in the early hours of Wednesday. According to India, several “terrorist camps” were destroyed in the process.
India accused the other side of firing grenades or artillery fire across the border in the heavily contested Kashmir region. Pakistan, meanwhile, said it shot down five Indian fighter jets in self-defence.
On Thursday, the Indian government announced that one of Pakistan’s air defence systems in the megacity of Lahore near the shared border had been destroyed.
“It has been reliably learnt that an air-defence system at Lahore has been neutralized,” the statement said. The military added it had responded to Pakistan’s attempt to hit military targets in the north and west of India, including 15 cities, with drones and missiles.
However, this was thwarted. There was initially no confirmation of this from Islamabad.
Pakistan’s military on Thursday said it shot down 25 drones launched by India, as panic gripped major cities amid soaring tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
“Pakistan Armed Forces have so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones using both soft kill (technical) and hard kill (weapons-based) countermeasures,” the military’s media wing ISPR said in a statement.
“Indian drones shot down by the armed forces are Pakistan’s war trophies,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in an address to the National Assembly.
On Thursday, at least three drones were downed in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, a few kilometres from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
Amid the panic, sirens sounded in parts of Islamabad. However, the capital administration said “a few individuals are spreading panic in Islamabad by sounding false sirens.”
Meanwhile, authorities have suspended operations at four major airports in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Sialkot until 6 pm (1300 GMT).
Earlier, Pakistan’s military confirmed the death of a civilian from the debris of a downed drone in the southern province of Sindh, although local media reports suggested more casualties occurred.
This brought the death toll from Indian strikes to at least 32 people and over 57 injured, including women, children and four soldiers, it said.
The Indian military reported 13 deaths from Pakistani artillery fire Wednesday night. One soldier was among the dead.
“India has undertaken yet another blatant military act of aggression against Pakistan by sending ... drones to multiple locations,” army spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said during a briefing in Islamabad.
India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said there was a lot of disinformation and India was responding only after Pakistan escalated matters.
“Further escalation will be responded to in the appropriate domain.
It is a choice for Pakistan to make,” Misri added.
The origins of the conflict, currently at its most intense in two decades, go back to colonial times. In 1947, the British granted independence to the Indian subcontinent and divided it up.
The partition created the new state of Pakistan for Muslims alongside the predominantly Hindu India. The violent partition has fuelled a bitter rivalry to this day.
Since their independence, the two countries have fought three wars against each other, two of them over the contested region of Kashmir.
