India strikes Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi port; downs F16 jet

AFP | New Delhi

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India’s government said yesterday that Pakistan launched an overnight air attack using “drones and missiles”, before New Delhi retaliated to destroy an air defence system in Lahore.

Pakistan also accused India of carrying out of drone attacks with its army saying it shot down 25 Indian drones.

“Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets ... using drones and missiles,” India’s defence ministry said in a statement, adding that “these were neutralised” by air defence systems.

New Delhi said that areas targeted included sites in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and India’s Punjab state -- including the key cities of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh -- as well as Bhuj in Gujarat state.

“The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations,” it added.

The defence ministry said that yesterday morning its military had “targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan”, saying that the “response has been in the same domain, with the same intensity, as Pakistan”.

It added that it had been “reliably learnt that an air defence system at Lahore has been neutralised”.

India also accused Pakistan of having “increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using mortars and heavy calibre artillery” across the de facto border in Jammu and Kashmir.

At least 45 deaths have been reported from both sides following a sharp escalation on Wednesday, when India launched missiles it said targeted “terrorist camps”, and Pakistan retaliated with a barrage of artillery strikes.

Blasts heard in Lahore

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

Karachi airport was also closed and remained so yesterday evening.

Speaking after the Wednesday missile strike, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh 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.

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.

Global pressure

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.

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.

Measured response

Meanwhile, India yesterday said its precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and were a “controlled, precise, measured and non-escalatory” response to what it called Pakistan’s “original escalation” in the form of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

Addressing a joint press briefing, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said, “Our intention is not to escalate matters. We are only responding to escalation. If there is further escalation, the response will be in the appropriate domain.” He emphasised that no military targets were hit, only terrorist infrastructure.

India, he said, had proof of Pakistan’s long-standing ties with terror groups. “I don’t need to remind you where Osama Bin Laden was found… Pakistan is home to a large number of UN-proscribed terrorists,” Misri added, pointing to recent Pakistani leaders publicly acknowledging these links.