KARACHI, Pakistan
At least four Pakistani army personnel were injured in an Indian drone strike in the northeastern city of Lahore on Wednesday, as the military said it shot down 25 drones since last night.
The Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement that the armed forces have "so far" shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones "using both soft kill (technical) and hard kill (weapons-based) countermeasures."
Earlier, briefing journalists in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said that India "once again" violated Pakistan's airspace during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, while sending a dozen intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones.
He said the Harop drones “were shot down by Pakistani forces in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Attock, Ghotki, Gujranwala, Chakwal, and other cities.”
Visuals aired on local media showed security personnel collecting wreckage of downed drones in different parts of the country.
New Delhi had yet to officially react to Islamabad’s statement on drone incursions by the time of publication of this story.
A civilian was killed in the Ghotki district of southern Sindh province, he added.
Sirens blared in some parts of the capital, Islamabad, as part of civil defense exercises, a security official told Anadolu on condition of anonymity.
The latest developments come as tensions between the two nuclear neighbors have been running high after India launched strikes on several cities in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
At least 31 people were killed and 57 others injured in the missile strikes and cross-border firing along the Line of Control in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to the Pakistani army.
In retaliation to Indian missile strikes on what New Delhi said were "nine terror locations," Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets and a combat drone. There is no official reaction by New Delhi to the downing of Indian aircraft.
According to the Indian Foreign Ministry, 13 people were killed in cross-border firing along the LoC, a de facto border that divides the disputed Himalayan region between the two archrivals.
Another 59 people were injured, the ministry said Thursday.
One Indian soldier was also killed along the LoC, the Indian army said Wednesday night.
