Pakistan and India accuse each other of waves of drone attacks

Pakistan and India accuse each other of waves of drone attacks

Indian soldiers inspect the debris of a missile in a field on the outskirts of Amritsar

India and Pakistan accused each other Thursday of carrying out waves of drone attacks, as deadly confrontations between the nuclear-armed foes drew global calls for calm.

The fighting comes two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir, which Pakistan denied.

India on Wednesday launched missiles 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.

The South Asian neighbours have fought multiple wars over Kashmir since the end of British rule in 1947.

Pakistan's army said 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 defence ministry said in a statement 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 been "reliably learnt that an air defence system at Lahore has been neutralised".

On Thursday evening, explosions were reported at the airport of Jammu, a key city in the Indian-held part of disputed Kashmir, a security source who was unauthorised to speak to the media told AFP, without giving further details.

Shesh Paul Vaid, a former director general of police for Jammu and Kashmir, also wrote on social media that there were "loud explosions". 

- Blasts heard in Lahore -

Pakistan's military said on Thursday it had neutralised 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 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.

Karachi airport remained closed on Thursday evening.

Trading was halted on Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index after it slumped 6.3 percent on news of the drone attacks.

- '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 Kashmir that was targeted by Indian air 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 has 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 on Wednesday, and bore the brunt of shelling by Pakistan, Madasar Choudhary said his sister saw two children killed by shells.

"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.

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

Top US diplomat Marco Rubio spoke with leaders of both countries Thursday and urged "immediate de-escalation," his spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi, days after visiting Pakistan, as Tehran seeks to mediate.

Based on past conflicts, analyst Happymon Jacob -- director of the New Delhi-based Council for Strategic and Defence Research, said the latest would "likely end in a few iterations of exchange of long-range gunfire or missiles into each other's territory".

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.

burs-ecl/des

Originally published as Pakistan and India accuse each other of waves of drone attacks