Indian warships advance closer to key Pakistani port of Karachi amid rising tensions in ongoing border clashes

Daily Mail​

09-05-2025

Indian warships have advanced closer to the Pakistani port of Karachi amid rising tensions at the two country's borders, according to reports.
A source within the Indian Armed Forces said their western fleet has moved closer to the northern Arabian Sea, meaning it is now within prime striking distance of Pakistan 's largest port.
The source told The Telegraph: 'We are alert and ready to counter any threat from the adversary. The movement of the warplanes and other naval assets is for monitoring and deterrence.'
The move, which believed to have started eight days ago, means the ships are now in international waters where they are likely to remain.
Some of the vessels are believed to be holding an aircraft carrier, destroyers, frigates and anti-submarine ships.
Others are said to be carrying the partly Russian-developed BrahMos missile, which is capable of travelling at speeds of up to 2300mph to strike targets 500 miles away.
And it has sparked major fears for Pakistan as its Karachi port handles around 60 per cent of the country's trade as well as its naval base.
News of the deployment, first reported by the Times of India, came after multiple blasts overnight yesterday in the city of Jammu.
It plunged several districts of Indian Kashmir, including Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Udhampur, Rajouri, and Poonch, into darkness after causing severe power outages.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged shells and gunfire across their frontier in Kashmir, killing at least five civilians in a growing military standoff.
In Pakistan, an intense night of artillery exchanges left at least four civilians dead and wounded 12 others in areas near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, local police official Adeel Ahmad said.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have soared since an attack on a popular tourist site in India-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Hindu Indian tourists, on April 22.
New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack, an accusation Islamabad rejects.
On Wednesday, India conducted airstrikes on several sites in Pakistani territory it described as militant-related, killing 31 civilians according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets.
On Thursday, India said it thwarted Pakistani drone and missile attacks at military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, including Jammu in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Pakistan denied that it carried out drone attacks. India said meanwhile it hit Pakistan's air defense systems and radars close to the city of Lahore. The incidents could not be independently confirmed.
Pictured: A family sits in an open restaurant just before a suspected Pakistani attack in Jammu, on May 8, 2025
The Indian army said on Friday that Pakistan fired 300-400 drones overnight in violation of Indian airspace to target military installations in nearly three dozen sites along the western borders.
India brought down a number of the drones using 'kinetic and non-kinetic means,' Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian air force told a news conference.
Meanwhile, social platform X said in a statement on Thursday that the Indian government had ordered it to block users in the country from accessing more than 8,000 accounts, including a number of 'international news organizations and other prominent users.'
The social platform did not release the list of accounts it was blocking in India, but said the order 'amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.'
Later, X briefly blocked access to the Global Affairs Account from which it had posted the statement, also citing a legal demand from India.
India's biggest domestic cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League, which attracts top players from around the world, was suspended for one week.
Pakistan also moved its own domestic tournament to the United Arab Emirates because of the tensions.
Several northern and western Indian states, including Punjab, Rajasthan, Indian-controlled Kashmir, shut schools and other educational institutions for two days.
Airlines in India have also suspended flight operations from two dozen airports across northern and western regions. India's Civil Aviation Ministry confirmed in a statement the temporary closure of 24 airports on Thursday.
The impact of the border flare up has also revealed itself in the Indian stock markets. In early trade on Friday, the benchmark Sensex tanked 662 points to 79,649 while Nifty 50 declined 215 points to trade at 24,058.
As fears of military confrontation soar and worried world leaders call for de-escalation, US Vice President JD Vance has said that a potential war between India and Pakistan would be 'none of our business.'
'What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we're not going to get involved in the middle of war that's fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America's ability to control it,' he said in an interview with Fox News.