Pakistani military says four soldiers were wounded in latest drone strikes; both nations brace for wider conflict
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Tensions between India and Pakistan surged Thursday as the Pakistani military accused India of launching a series of drone attacks into its territory, marking a dangerous escalation in the worst cross-border conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals since 2019.
Pakistani military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif said Indian forces fired Israeli-made Harop drones into several areas across the border, including strikes that wounded four Pakistani soldiers near Lahore. Sharif claimed 25 drones were intercepted and shot down, though one caused a civilian fatality when debris fell in Sindh province. Another crashed in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
“The armed forces are neutralizing them as we speak,” Sharif said during a broadcast on Pakistan Television.
The drone strikes followed a wave of missile attacks by India on Wednesday that Pakistani officials say killed at least 31 civilians, including women and children. India’s Defense Ministry later acknowledged targeting Pakistani air defense systems but did not confirm whether drones were used. In a statement Thursday, India’s Foreign Ministry reported 13 civilian deaths and 59 injuries on the Indian side due to retaliatory fire, along with the death of one Indian soldier.
The exchange of fire between the two nations, triggered by a terrorist attack last month in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 26 people—most of them Indian Hindu tourists—has since spiraled into open military confrontation. India has blamed Pakistan for the assault, an accusation Islamabad continues to deny.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to avenge the Pakistani deaths, further fueling fears of a broader regional conflict. Both sides have evacuated thousands from border villages. Tens of thousands spent the night in shelters, with 2,000 Pakistanis fleeing their homes in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
In Chakothi, resident Mohammad Iftikhar described his forced evacuation amid heavy rain: “I am helplessly leaving my home for the safety of my children and wife.”
Flights were grounded at more than two dozen airports across northern and western India, while Pakistan suspended air traffic at Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and Sialkot.
According to Sharif, at least one of the drones damaged a military installation near Walton Airport in Lahore, located in a densely populated area just 25 kilometers from the Indian border. Police and local officials confirmed additional drones were shot down in cities across Punjab province, while wreckage from another was recovered in Chakwal district farmland.
India’s use of Harop drones—a type of loitering munition developed by Israel Aerospace Industries capable of both surveillance and precision strikes—marks a significant shift in the cross-border military calculus. The Harop drone blends the traits of a missile and a UAV, designed to loiter in the air before locking onto and destroying targets.
The renewed hostilities have drawn comparisons to the near-war scenario in 2019, when both nations conducted airstrikes following a deadly terror attack on Indian paramilitary forces in Pulwama. The Kashmir region, long contested by both countries, remains a flashpoint with frequent skirmishes despite intermittent diplomatic engagements.
With the death toll mounting and neither side backing down, international observers warn that miscalculation or provocation could ignite a wider conflict between two of Asia’s most heavily armed militaries.