Pakistan's air defense system shot down a dozen Indian drones overnight, as one attacked a military target near the eastern city of Lahore, causing damage and wounding soldiers, officials said Thursday.
It follows Indian missile strikes on Pakistani locations that killed 31 civilians a day earlier, including women and children, according to officials.
Meanwhile, India evacuated thousands of people from villages near the two countries’ highly militarized frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir.
Tensions between the two countries have spiked since April 22, when gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, in India-controlled Kashmir. India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the attack, something Islamabad has denied.
Drones shot down in Pakistan
Pakistan’s army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said an Indian drone wounded four soldiers and partially damaged a military target near Lahore overnight, while the country’s air defense system intercepted and shot down 12 Indian drones that entered Pakistani airspace at various locations. He gave no further details about the attack.
He added that in southern Sindh province, one civilian was killed and another wounded when debris from downed drones fell in a populated area.
The incidents could not be independently verified, and Indian officials did not immediately comment.
In Lahore, local police official Mohammad Rizwan said a drone was downed near Walton Airport, an airfield in a residential area about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the border with India that also contains military installations.
Local media reported that two additional drones were shot down in other cities of Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.
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In Punjab's Chakwal district, a drone cashed into farmland. No casualties were reported. District police chief Ghulam Mohiuddin did not say whose drone it was. Authorities have secured the wreckage and are investigating the drone’s origin and purpose.
India said its strikes Wednesday targeted at least nine sites in Pakistan linked to planning terrorist attacks against India. Some of these targets were in Punjab and most of Wednesday’s casualties were in this province.
Fears of escalating conflict
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed overnight to avenge the killings but gave no details, raising fears of a broader conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Across the de-facto border in Indian-controlled Kashmir, tens of thousands of people slept in shelters overnight, officials and residents said Thursday.
Indian authorities evacuated civilians from dozens of villages living close to the highly militarized Line of Control overnight, while some living in border towns like Uri and Poonch left their homes voluntarily, three police and civil officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental regulations.
India’s foreign ministry said that 13 civilians were killed and 59 wounded the previous day during exchanges of fire across the de facto border. An Indian soldier was also killed by shelling Wednesday, according to the Indian army.
Iranian foreign minister will meet Indian officials
Meanwhile, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in India's capital on Wednesday night for a pre-scheduled visit. He was scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar later Thursday and the duo will co-chair a joint forum on economic cooperation.
Iran has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan, and Araghchi was in Pakistan on Monday to meet top leaders as part of that effort.
