Pakistan’s air defense system shot down a drone early Thursday near a naval air base in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistani police and security officials said, as India evacuated thousands of people villages near the two country's highly militarized frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir.
It was not immediately clear whether the drone was armed.
Local police official Mohammad Rizwan said only that a drone was downed near Waltan, a residential area in Lahore that also contains military installations. Local media reported that two additional drones were shot down in other cities in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.
The incident comes a day after India launched strikes on mosques and residential areas in six locations across Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing 31 civilians, including women and children, according to Pakistani officials.
In response, Pakistan’s air force shot down five Indian fighter jets, its military said.
Tensions have escalated since last month, when gunmen carried out an April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists. India accused Pakistan of backing militants who carried out the attack, something Islamabad has denied.
India said its strikes targeted at least nine sites in Pakistan linked to planning terrorist attacks against India.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed overnight to avenge the killings but gave no details, raising fears of a broader conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Across the de-facto border in Indian-controlled Kashmir, tens of thousands of people slept in shelters overnight, officials and residents said Thursday.
Indian authorities evacuated civilians from dozens of villages living close to the highly militarized Line of Control overnight while some living in border towns like Uri and Poonch left their homes on their own, three police and civil officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental regulations.
