India fires attack drones into Pakistan and several are shot down,
Pakistani military says
[May 08, 2025]
By BABAR DOGAR and MUNIR AHMED
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — India fired attack drones into Pakistan on
Thursday, with one wounding four soldiers, the Pakistani military said,
a day after missiles struck several locations and killed more than two
dozen people. Several drones were shot down, officials said.
Hours after the first drone attacks, India’s Defense Ministry said it
targeted air defense systems in several locations in Pakistan, but did
not say whether it used drones.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors have soared since gunmen
killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, in India-controlled
Kashmir last month. India accused Pakistan of being behind the assault.
Islamabad denies that.
Indian strikes on Wednesday killed 31 civilians, including women and
children, according to Pakistani officials. More people were killed on
both sides of the border in heavy exchanges of fire that followed. It
was their worst confrontation since 2019, when the rivals came close to
war.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to avenge the deaths
in the strikes, raising fears that the two countries could be headed
toward another all-out conflict.
The relationship between India and Pakistan has been shaped by conflict
and mutual suspicion, most notably in their competing claims over the
Himalayan region of Kashmir. They have fought two of their three wars
over Kashmir, which is split between them and claimed by both in its
entirety.
Drones fired at Pakistan
India fired several Israeli-made Harop drones at Pakistan overnight and
into Thursday afternoon, according to army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad
Sharif.
Pakistani forces shot down 25, he said. A civilian was killed and
another wounded when debris from a downed drone fell in Sindh province.
One drone damaged a military site near the city of Lahore and wounded
four soldiers, and another fell in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near
the capital, according to Sharif.
“The armed forces are neutralizing them as we speak,” Sharif said on the
state-run Pakistan Television early Thursday afternoon.
The Harop drone, produced by Israel’s IAI, is one of several in India’s
inventory, according to the International Institute for Strategic
Studies' Military Balance report.
According to IAI, the Harop combines the capabilities of a drone and a
missile and can operate at long ranges.
In Lahore, local police official Mohammad Rizwan said a drone was downed
near Walton Airport, an airfield in a residential area about 25
kilometers (16 miles) from the border with India that also contains
military installations.
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A big hole is seen on a rooftop of a house suspected to have been
damaged in Indian drone attack as residents, behind, gather near a
cordoned off site, where Pakistan's air defense system shot down a
suspected Indian drone in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, May 8, 2025.
(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Local media reported that two additional drones were shot down in
other cities of Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.
In Punjab's Chakwal district, a drone crashed into farmland.
Authorities have secured the wreckage and are investigating the
drone’s origin and purpose.
Fears of an escalating conflict
With tensions high, India evacuated thousands of people from
villages near the two countries’ highly militarized frontier in
Kashmir. Tens of thousands of people slept in shelters overnight,
officials and residents said Thursday.
About 2,000 villagers also fled their homes in
Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Mohammad Iftikhar boarded a vehicle in Chakothi with his family on
Thursday as heavy rain lashed the region. “I am helplessly leaving
my home for the safety of my children and wife,” he said.
Flights remained suspended at over two dozen airports across
northern and western regions in India, according to travel
advisories by multiple airlines. Pakistan has suspended flights at
four of its airports — Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Sialkot —
according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
India’s Foreign Ministry said that 13 civilians were killed and 59
wounded the previous day during exchanges of fire across the de
facto border. An Indian soldier was also killed by shelling
Wednesday, according to the Indian army.
Pakistani officials said six people have been killed near highly
militarized frontier in exchanges of fire over the past day.
___
Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Aijaz
Hussein in Srinagar, India, Rajesh Roy in New Delhi, and Ishfaq
Hussain and Roshan Mughal in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, contributed to
this report.
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