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Explosions reported in Jammu city in Indian-administered Kashmir
Reports are coming in of multiple blasts and sirens heard in the city of Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir.
A security source told Agence France-Presse that there were explosions at an airport in Jammu.
A witness told Reuters they saw red flashes and projectiles in the night sky above the city.
Residents told the Associated Press that they heard explosions and sirens, while local news channels reported suspected drones flying overhead in the city.
Shesh Paul Vaid, the region’s former director-general of police, said the city was witnessing a complete blackout after loud explosions.
“Bombing, shelling, or missile strikes suspected,” he wrote on social media.
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A blackout is affecting Jammu city in Indian-administered Kashmir amid reports of multiple explosions.
Blackouts are also affecting the cities of Hoshiarpur and Amritsar in the Punjab state, the Hindustan Times reports.
Explosions reported in Jammu city in Indian-administered Kashmir
Reports are coming in of multiple blasts and sirens heard in the city of Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir.
A security source told Agence France-Presse that there were explosions at an airport in Jammu.
A witness told Reuters they saw red flashes and projectiles in the night sky above the city.
Residents told the Associated Press that they heard explosions and sirens, while local news channels reported suspected drones flying overhead in the city.
Shesh Paul Vaid, the region’s former director-general of police, said the city was witnessing a complete blackout after loud explosions.
“Bombing, shelling, or missile strikes suspected,” he wrote on social media.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, called for “continued alertness” and “clear communication” during a meeting with government ministers on Thursday.
Modi reaffirmed his government’s commitment to national security and operational preparedness during the high-level meeting, the Hindustan Times reported.
They marked his first comments since the recent escalation in hostilities between India and Pakistan.
The meeting also covered issues including the strengthening of civil defence mechanisms, efforts to counter misinformation and fake news, and ensuring the security of critical infrastructure, according to the Indian prime minister’s office.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, on Thursday and stressed the need for India and Pakistan to work closely to de-escalate their conflict, Sharif’s office said in a statement.
Flights remained suspended at more than two dozen airports across northern and western regions in India, according to travel advisories by multiple airlines.
Pakistan resumed flights nationwide after a suspension at four airports, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Here is another image from Uri, in the India-controlled portion of Kashmir, where it appears that shelling from Pakistan has destroyed residential buildings.
Reuters is carrying the quote from Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif now, reporting that he said Pakistani retaliation “is increasingly becoming certain now. I will still refrain from saying it is 100%. But the situation has become very difficult. We have to respond.”
India’s ministry of information and broadcasting has issued a notice instructing that over-the-top media services, i.e. those that digitally distribute content to users directly over the internet, must remove content that originates from Pakistan.
In a statement the ministry said:
In the interest of national security, all OTT platforms, media streaming platforms and intermediaries operating in India are advised to discontinue the web-series, films, songs, podcasts and other streaming media content, whether made available on a subscription based model or otherwise, having its origins in Pakistan with immediate effect.
The Pakistan Aviation Authority has announced that operations at Karachi airport will be suspended until midnight, Reuters reports. It has just gone past 6pm in Karachi.
Reuters is also carrying comments from India’s foreign secretary, who has said that any further escalation would be escalation by Pakistan, and would be responded to. Pakistan would, he said, be responsible for the consequences if India infrastructure was targeted.
Pakistan defence minister: drone incursion makes attack on India 'increasingly certain'
Pakistan’s defence minister has told Reuters that it is “increasingly certain” that Pakistan will attack India after it claimed Indian drones had staged incursions into Pakistan.
In comments reported by the news agency, Khawaja Asif said that the US had been leading international efforts to de-escalate the situation, but there was hardly any space left to de-escalate, and the conflict was heading down a blind alley. Gulf nations were also involved in de-escaltion efforts, he said.
He denied Indian claims to have damaged Pakistan’s air defences in Lahore, and said there had been no damage to Pakistan’s military sites from drones. He said that any retaliation would focus on military sites in India.
Pakistan and India have accused each other of overnight drone and missile attacks, with Delhi claiming to have thwarted strikes on more than a dozen cities and Islamabad claiming to have shot down 25 Indian drones.
Indian missile strikes on Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday killed 31 people. Pakistan’s military spokesperson Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry earlier said that a confrontation with an airborne Indian device had left four Pakistani soldiers injured, and that one civilian had been killed in an incident involving a drone.
India alleged that Pakistan had attempted to launch drones and missiles at a number of military targets in its north and west, including in the cities of Amritsar, Srinagar and Chandigarh. It said its air defence systems stopped all the attacks.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated after more than two dozen tourists – mostly Indian Hindus – were shot dead in an attack by militants in Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Kashmir on 22 April.
Control of Kashmir, in the foothills of the Himalayas, has been disputed since India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.
Both claim it in full, but each controls a section of the territory, separated by one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders: the “line of control”, based on a ceasefire border established after their 1947-48 war. India and Pakistan have gone to war twice since over Kashmir, most recently in 1999.
Anti-Indian protests have continued in some places in Pakistan. In Multan an effigy of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi was burned, and in Chaman an Indian flag was trampled underfoot.
India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, has defended his nation’s recent actions in a statement, saying “We have always played the role of a responsible nation”. He did not rule out further Indian military action.
He said “We have always been in favour of resolving problems through dialogue. But this does not mean that anyone should take unfair advantage of our patience. If anyone tries to take advantage of our patience, then they will have to be fully prepared to face action just like yesterday. We are prepared for such a responsible response in the future as well.
Reuters has a quick snap to say that Pakistan’s foreign minister has told the news agency that the India-Pakistan hotline is working, and there has been contact between the offices of the respective national security advisers.
More details soon …
India’s exterior minister has today been hosting Iran’s foreign minister. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar posted on social media to say he had briefed Abbas Araqchi on “regional and global developments.”
Upon his arrival in India this morning, Araqchi had urged restraint between Pakistan and India. Reuters reports Iran’s representative said “We hope that India and Pakistan will prevent the escalation of tension in the region. Our region needs peace, especially to expand economic cooperation between regional countries, and we hope this will happen.”
Araqchi visited Pakistan earlier this week, two days before India launched its missile strikes inside Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Images on the news wires show the aftermath of alleged attacks on both sides of the India-Pakistan border and in the long-disputed territory of Kashmir.
India claims to have neutralised air defence in Lahore in response to Pakistan attack
India’s government has said it has been recovering debris from a number of locations after it accused Pakistan of launching an attack using drones and missiles.
“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.
“The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations,” it added.
The defence ministry said that on Thursday 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 claimed that it had “reliably learnt that an air defence system at Lahore has been neutralised.”
Welcome and opening summary …
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India fired attack drones into Pakistan on Thursday, with one wounding four soldiers, the Pakistani military claimed, a day after missiles struck several locations and killed more than two dozen people. Several drones were shot down, officials said
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Hours after the first drone attacks, India’s defence ministry said it targeted air defence systems in several locations in Pakistan, but did not say whether it used drones
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India alleged that Pakistan had attempted to launch drones and missiles at a number of military targets in its north and west, including in the major cities of Amritsar, Srinagar and Chandigarh. It said its air defence systems stopped all the attacks
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Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have soared since gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, in the India-controlled part of Kashmir last month. India accused Pakistan of being behind the assault. Islamabad denies that
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Indian strikes on Wednesday killed 31 civilians, including women and children, according to Pakistani officials
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Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to avenge the deaths in the strikes, raising fears that the two countries could be headed toward another all-out conflict.
