Pakistan shoots down Indian drone as nations trade more fire along border
Pakistan shot down an Indian drone early on Thursday near a naval airbase in Lahore, Pakistani police and security officials said, as the two nations exchanged more fire along the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region. Local police official Mohammad Rizwan told the AP news agency that a drone was downed near Waltan airport, a small airfield in a residential area of Lahore that contains military installations, about 25 kilometres east of the border with India. Indian officials did not immediately comment. The exchange of fire comes a day after India carried out air strikes on Pakistan as tensions flare over an April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. On Thursday, the Indian army said Pakistan 'resorted to unprovoked firing' by targeting the areas of Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri and Akhnoor along the Line of Control – the 740km de facto border between the two nuclear-armed nations. Locals said the Pakistani army shelled and opened fire on the Indian side throughout the night. At least 13 Indians including a soldier and four children were killed and nearly 60 injured in the artillery and mortar shelling, Indian authorities said. "This is a scary situation for us in the border area. We have not seen anything like this. We were scared so we evacuated with our family,' said Humail Nadeem, a resident of the border town of Poonch, which has also been targeted. The president of the local Sikh temple in Poonch told local media that a teacher had been killed when a shell hit a mosque. A wall of his Sikh temple was also damaged, he added. "We have never witnessed such heavy shelling in Poonch before. We saw the Kargil war in 1999 but civilian establishments largely remained untouched then,' said Narinder Singh. Explosions were also heard in Amritsar, the second-largest city in the Indian state of Punjab and a major cultural hub that lies about 30km from the international border. Parts of a suspected Pakistani missile were found scattered at several locations in the Kathunanagal area of Amritsar, local news channels reported. TV footage showed panicked villagers gathered in fields around remnants of the missiles, but no injuries were reported. "There were four or five blasts between 1am and 1.30am. These were so loud and intense that the entire house was shaking,' one resident said. "There is a situation of panic.' New Delhi stunned the world on Wednesday when it launched "Operation Sindoor' with missile strikes on nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The operation came in the wake of the killing of 25 tourists, all men and mostly Hindus, and a Muslim pony operator by armed militants in Kashmir's Pahalgam two weeks ago, in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the restless region. New Delhi has blamed the attack on Islamabad and accuses Pakistan of backing militant groups in Kashmir, a charge denied by Islamabad. The Resistance Front, an extremist group, claimed responsibility. India has claimed its air strikes on Wednesday killed 70 'terrorists' but maintained that no Pakistani military facilities were targeted. Islamabad said at least 31 people were killed in the Indian strikes and retaliated with the most intense round of shelling in four years. At least three Indian fighter planes were also shot down by the Pakistan military, including a Rafale plane, according to media reports. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who had been in Pakistan as part of mediation efforts, arrived in New Delhi on Thursday. Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir also landed in the Indian capital on an unannounced visit, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on X. The focus of Mr Al Jubeir's visit is also believed to be de-escalating tensions. Jammu, a Hindu-dominated mountainous region, and Kashmir, a Muslim-dominated valley, is divided between India and Pakistan but is claimed by both nations in its entirety. The region has struggled with over three decades of insurgency against India. People were forced to take refuge in underground bunkers or flee their villages and towns as mortar shelling struck border towns on Wednesday, with many reported injured. Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have set up centralised control rooms in ten districts to monitor the security situation.
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