India accuses Pakistan of using commercial flights as 'shield' to deter New Delhi
A local resident inspects his house that was damaged by Pakistani artillery shelling in Uri, about 100km from Srinagar, on May 9, 2025. (Photo: AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)
JAMMU: India’s air force accused Pakistan of using civilian airlines as a "shield" on Friday (May 9), the third day of the worst fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours in nearly three decades.
The old foes have been clashing since India struck several areas that it described as "terrorist infrastructure" in Pakistan in retaliation for a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month.
Pakistan dismissed Indian accusations that it was involved. Both countries have exchanged cross-border fire and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other's airspace, alarming world powers who have called for restraint.
Around 48 people have been killed since Wednesday, according to casualty estimates on both sides of the border that have not been independently verified.
The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947. The countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, and clashed many times.
CLASHING ACCUSATIONS
India's military said Pakistan used Turkish drones to attack 36 locations on India's west and northwest, in Kashmir and further afield in states bordering Pakistan, all the way to the edge of the Arabian Sea.
It added that Pakistan fired about 300 to 400 drones overnight in violation of Indian airspace to target military installations.
India brought down a number of the drones using "kinetic and non-kinetic means", Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian air force told a news conference.
He added that India responded with drones on targets in Pakistan and destroyed one air defence system. Singh said Pakistan used commercial flights as "a shield" during the drone attack, by letting airlines operate on its side of the border in a bid to deter or weaken India's response. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan.
India's Border Security Force said a "major infiltration bid" was foiled in Kashmir's Samba region on Thursday night. Shells were still falling in the Uri area on Friday, according to a security official who did not want to be named.
"Several houses caught fire and were damaged in the shelling in the Uri sector ... One woman was killed and three people were injured in overnight shelling," the official said.
Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar dismissed earlier Indian accusations of Pakistani attacks as "baseless and misleading" and said Pakistan had not carried out any "offensive actions".
In Pakistani Kashmir, officials said heavy shelling from across the border killed five civilians, including an infant, and wounded 29 others in the early hours of Friday.
India's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The fighting is the deadliest since a limited conflict between the two countries in Kashmir's Kargil region in 1999.
INDIA ORDERS X TO BLOCK THOUSANDS OF ACCOUNTS
Meanwhile, social platform X in a statement on Thursday said the Indian government had ordered it to block users in the country from accessing more than 8,000 accounts, including a number of “international news organisations and other prominent users.”
The social platform did not release the list of accounts it was blocking in India, but said the order “amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.” Later, X briefly blocked access to the Global Affairs Account from which it had posted the statement, also citing a legal demand from India.
CRISIS DISRUPTS SCHOOLS, SPORTS AND TRAVEL
India’s biggest domestic cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League, which attracts top players from around the world, was suspended for one week. Pakistan also moved its own domestic tournament to the United Arab Emirates because of the tensions.
Panic also spread during an evening cricket match in northern Dharamsala city, where a crowd of more than 10,000 people had to be evacuated from the stadium and the game called off, according to an Associated Press photographer covering the event.
Meanwhile, several northern and western Indian states, including Punjab, Rajasthan, Indian-controlled Kashmir, shut schools and other educational institutions for two days.
Airlines in India have also suspended flight operations from two dozen airports across northern and western regions. India’s Civil Aviation Ministry late on Thursday confirmed in a statement the temporary closure of 24 airports.
In Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir that came under drone attack on Thursday night, shops and businesses began shutting at 5pm on Friday and the streets were largely empty as people rushed home.
In neighbouring Punjab state, authorities told people that sirens should be taken seriously and not considered drills. "Remember: Silence, darkness and discipline – these are the things that save lives," they said in social media posts.
Sirens blared for more than two hours on Friday in the Punjab city of Amritsar, which houses the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs.
No attacks followed, but tourists fled the city by road as the airport was closed.
Schools and coaching centres were closed in the Bikaner region of India's desert state of Rajasthan, and residents near the Pakistan border said they were asked to move further away and consider moving in with relatives or using accommodation arranged by the government.
Further south in Bhuj in Gujarat, authorities said tourist buses had been kept on standby in case they needed to evacuate people near the Pakistan border.
India's Directorate General of Shipping directed all ports, terminals and shipyards to increase security, amid "growing concerns regarding potential threats".
