India on Thursday said it targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan after Islamabad attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India using drones and missiles.
An air defence system in Lahore “has been neutralised,” Delhi said, even as reports emerged of Rawalpindi cricket stadium being hit by drone fire.
“On the night of 07-08 May 2025, Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in Northern and Western India including Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj, using drones and missiles,” a Press Information Bureau release said Thursday afternoon
“These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter UAS Grid and Air Defence systems. The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations that prove the Pakistani attacks,” it said.
Delhi said its response was in the same domain with the same intensity as Pakistan.
On Wednesday morning, the PIB release said, “Indian Armed Forces targeted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. Indian response has been in the same domain with same intensity as Pakistan. It has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised.”
Pakistan, it noted, “has increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using Mortars and heavy calibre Artillery in areas in Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri, Poonch, Mendhar and Rajouri sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.”
The death toll from such Pakistani firing is now at 16, the PIB said, including three women and five children.
“Here too, India was compelled to respond to bring Mortar and Artillery fire from Pakistan to a halt,” it added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Pakistani military establishment \claimed India is using Israel-made drones to violate Islamabad’s airspace and that 12 such drones had been shot down in two days, even as Union defence minister Rajnath Singh told an all-party meeting that India will hit back if Pakistan retaliates to Operation Sindoor.
“India used Harop drones to violate Pakistani airspace, 12 were shot down,” Reuters quoted a Pakistani defence spokesperson as saying.
Indian drones continue to be sent into Pakistani airspace and Pakistan is engaging and neutralising them one by one, the spokesperson claimed. Drone debris is being collected from locations, including in Karachi and Lahore, he added.
The IAI Harop is what is called a “loitering munition” – designed to hover, and attack when commanded. It is developed by the MBT Missiles Division of Israel Aerospace Industries.
The Indian Air Force had first announced inducting Harop drones in September 2009. In February 2019, the IAF reportedly decided to add 54 drones to its existing fleet of around 110, renamed P-4.