Residents in Indian-administered Kashmir have said major and multiple explosions struck the city of Jammu as sirens blared, causing a complete blackout for several hours.
Spiralling tensions between India and Pakistan have included heavy cross-border heavy shelling Thursday along the Line of Control (LoC) in disputed Kashmir.
At least 48 deaths have been reported, 32 of them in Pakistan, since India launched missiles on Wednesday that it said targeted “terrorist camps”, and Pakistan retaliated with a barrage of artillery strikes.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar denied on Thursday that Pakistan launched the attacks. “Pakistan has not targeted any locations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, or across international border,” Tarar said in a post on X.
Indian journalist Zafar Choudhary, speaking from Jammu city, told Al Jazeera that the explosions in Jammu were “completely unforeseen, completely unprecedented.”
According to Choudary, the sounds of explosions have now stopped, and the electricity blackout in the city has also been lifted.
“Electricity has been restored in a phased manner in different parts of the region. So, that is one sign of normalcy that people are feeling, and there hasn’t been any sound of explosions in the last one and a half hours,” he said.
Sirens were heard in Jammu and several villages near the Line of Control, journalist Umar Meraj told Al Jazeera from Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir. “The clashes between the India and Pakistan forces are far more intense than in previous years. What used to be occasional small firearms have escalated to the heavy exchange of artillery,” he added.
The news agency Reuters, citing an unnamed Indian official, reported Pakistani attacks in Akhnoor, Samba, Kathua and multiple other locations in Jammu.
The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, said, “Deeply disturbing reports are emerging from Jammu, where air strikes have reportedly hit certain areas”.
“My heart goes out to the people of Jammu, especially those living along the borders, who are once again caught in the terrifying uncertainty of conflict”, he added.
Pakistan is denying that it launched attacks in the Indian cities of Pathankot and Jaisalmer and Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir.
“These claims are entirely unfounded, politically motivated, and part of a reckless propaganda campaign aimed at maligning Pakistan,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The repeated pattern of levelling accusations against Pakistan without any credible investigation reflects a deliberate strategy to manufacture a pretext for aggression and to further destabilize the region,” the statement continued.
Reuters also reported on Thursday that a Chinese-made J-10 Pakistani fighter jet shot down at least two Indian military aircraft on Wednesday, one of which was said to be a French-made Rafale fighter, citing two anonymous United States officials.
Indian authorities have yet to acknowledge such a loss, which could be viewed as a significant indicator of the effectiveness of Chinese-manufactured fighter planes against those manufactured by Western nations. Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, told Reuters on Thursday that the J-10 was used to shoot down three French-made Rafale planes.
In the meantime, Pakistan’s military says it shot down 29 drones from India that entered its airspace, as hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours continue to spiral following Indian air raids on multiple locations within Pakistan’s territory.
Pakistani Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the military spokesperson, said on Thursday that Indian-made Israeli Harop drones had been deployed to targets including Karachi and Lahore.
“Indian drones continue to be sent into Pakistan airspace … [India] will continue to pay dearly for this naked aggression,” Chaudhry said. The military said one civilian was killed and four Pakistani soldiers were wounded as a result of the drone incidents.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said his country has so far “exercised strategic restraint” and limited its response strictly for self-defence, in accordance with international law and the United Nations Charter. “Pakistan deserves to respond to India at a place, time and manner of its choosing,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, his Indian counterpart, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, said that any further military action by Pakistan will be considered an “escalation”, adding that Islamabad will be considered responsible for any attack on Indian infrastructure. India said that Pakistan had attempted to engage military targets with missiles and drones, but that the Indian military had thwarted the attacks.
The Indian Army said it “neutralised” attempts by Pakistan to “engage” several military targets in its northern and western regions on Wednesday night and early Thursday. It targeted air defence systems in several locations in Pakistan, India’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement, adding that 16 people were reported killed as a result of Pakistani fire.
Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Reuters that no military sites or the air defence system in the country’s second-largest city of Lahore sustained any damage from Indian drones. India said its army struck and damaged air defence radars and systems at multiple locations in Pakistan.
Thursday’s exchanges and back-and-forth claims and counterclaims came a day after India said it launched precision strikes on what it called “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told an all-party meeting on Thursday that “100 terrorists” had been killed; the claim could not be independently verified.
The crisis between India and Pakistan appears to be “at a crossroads,” Washington-based South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman told Al Jazeera.
“India has said it has no intention of further military action, unless it is attacked by Pakistan. For now, Pakistan has vowed retaliation for the initial Indian air strikes, but it has also said it wants de-escalation,” he said.
New Delhi’s operation followed a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago, which killed 26 people. India blamed Islamabad for the attack – a charge Pakistan strongly denies.
Escalation on the ground
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday in which he reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “national security, operational preparedness, and citizen safety”, his office said.
“Ministries are ready to deal with all kinds of emerging situations,” the statement said.
Reporting from New Delhi, Al Jazeera’s Neha Poonia described the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) – the de facto border in Kashmir – as deteriorating rapidly. “There’s been a significant escalation in the manner in which the two armies are engaging,” she said.
The Indian Army said 13 civilians had been killed, 59 injured, and one soldier had also died in the exchanges. Villages near the LoC have emptied, with residents fleeing or sheltering in bunkers.
“We haven’t seen this kind of civilian movement in years,” Poonia noted.
Amid the security crisis, 20 airports across northern India have been closed until at least May 10, severely affecting travel and commercial activity.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said Karachi airport will be closed until 6pm (13:00 GMT), while the airports at Islamabad and Lahore were briefly shut “for operational reasons”.
‘Act of war’
From Islamabad, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reported that the Pakistani military has accused India of endangering civilian and aviation safety with repeated airspace violations.
Hyder also noted a new point of contention: India’s release of water into the Chenab River. Islamabad sees this as a breach of longstanding agreements, an “existential threat” and “an act of war”.
“Pakistan’s parliament, with cross-party consensus, has now authorised a military response,” Hyder said, pointing to mounting fears of a wider war.
After Wednesday’s strikes, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised to retaliate, raising fears that the two countries could be headed towards another all-out conflict.
But in a sign that India and Pakistan may be looking to temper the escalation, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Dar told Reuters on Thursday that there has been contact between the offices of the national security advisers of Islamabad and New Delhi.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia and Iran have sent their foreign ministers to New Delhi and Islamabad in a bid to mediate.
‘Pakistan will respond’
As India and Pakistan both accuse each other of provocation, analysts suggest Pakistan is under pressure to deliver a strong response to India’s actions.
“India’s limited objectives are met,” said Happymon Jacob, director of the Council for Strategic and Defence Research in New Delhi, speaking to Al Jazeera. “Pakistan has a limited objective of ensuring that it carries out a retaliatory strike to save face domestically and internationally. So, that is likely to happen.”
Jacob predicted the exchange may evolve into a few rounds of cross-border missile or artillery fire, similar to past confrontations.
