The hits follow missile strikes on locations that killed 31 civilians in the Islamic republic a day earlier, according to Islamabad.
Pakistan shot down more than two dozen Indian drones overnight, as one attacked a military target near the city of Lahore in the east of the country, causing damage and wounding soldiers, Islamabad said Thursday.
The downings follow Indian missile strikes on locations that killed 31 civilians in the Islamic republic a day earlier, according to officials.
Meanwhile, across the border in India, people were evacuated from villages near the highly militarized Pakistani frontier in the disputed Kashmir region.
Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistan shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones from India at multiple locations, including the two cities of Karachi and Lahore, and that their debris is being collected.
“Indian drones continue to be sent into Pakistan airspace … [India] will continue to pay dearly for this naked aggression,” he said, providing no further details.
Pakistan says at least 31 of its civilians were killed and about 50 wounded in Wednesday’s strikes and in cross-border shelling across the Kashmiri frontier, while New Delhi says 16 Indians were killed.
Also in Lahore, the U.S. Consulate General directed its staff to shelter in place amid reports of drone explosions, downed drones, and possible airspace incursions, the State Department said on Thursday.
The consulate said it has also received initial reports that authorities may be evacuating some areas adjacent to Lahore’s main airport, according to a statement.
India said the strikes it made on Wednesday targeted at least nine sites in Pakistan linked to planning terrorist attacks in India.
Some of these targets were in the Punjab, and most of the casualties were in this province.
Tensions between the two countries have grown since April 22, when gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindus, in India-controlled Kashmir.
India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the attack.
Islamabad denied the accusation and vowed to retaliate for the missile strikes.
The prime minister in Islamabad, Shehbaz Sharif, vowed overnight to avenge the killings but gave no details, raising fears of a broader conflict between the two nuclear-armed states.
By Guy Birchall
