The Pakistani military establishment Thursday 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.
“India is paying dearly, will continue to pay dearly for this naked aggression,” the Pakistani spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister in a televised address on state broadcaster PTV to the nation said on Wednesday evening: "For the blatant mistake that India made last night, it will now have to pay the price.”
Pakistan said at least 31 of its civilians had been killed and 46 wounded as India struck nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This, Islamabad said, included deaths from the strikes and border shelling.
Islamabad pledged to respond "at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty", emphatically rejecting Indian allegations it had terrorist camps on its territory.
At least 13 Indians have been killed in Poonch from Pakistani shelling, the ministry of external affairs said on Thursday morning.
Asked whether Chinese jets were involved in the India-Pakistan conflict, China's foreign ministry said on Thursday that it was "not familiar with the matter".
A series of posts by the Press Information Bureau's Fact-Checking Unit on Wednesday said pro-Pakistan social media handles were sharing old photos of crashes of IAF aircraft and claiming they were shot down by Pakistan during Operation Sindoor on Wednesday.
One viral post claimed that the Pakistan Army had shot down an Indian Rafale jet near Bahawalpur. The PIB Fact Check team found that the image was from a MiG-21 crash in Moga, Punjab, in 2021 and entirely unrelated to current events.
Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif also made a baseless claim that Indian soldiers were captured during the recent military strikes, a statement that was later debunked and retracted, officials said.