Pakistan says it reserves right to respond to aggression
A member of the Crime Scene Unit (CSU), inspects the fragments, of what they say is a drone, after it was brought down on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan, on May 8, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Imran Ali)
LAHORE: Pakistan and India accused each other of launching drone attacks on Thursday (May 8), and Islamabad’s Defence Minister said further retaliation was “increasingly certain”, on the second day of major clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan said it shot down 25 drones from India, while India said its air defences had stopped Pakistani drone and missile attacks on military targets, dashing hopes they would soon bow to pressure to end their worst confrontation in more than two decades.
World powers from the US to Russia and China have called for calm in one of the world's most dangerous, and most populated, nuclear flashpoint regions. The US Consulate General in Pakistan's Lahore ordered staff to shelter in place.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday, urging immediate deescalation and dialogue. He also called on Islamabad to end support for terrorist groups and expressed sorrow over civilian casualties.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours 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, and wounded about 50 others, 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.
Pakistan denied that any of the sites hit by India on Wednesday were militant bases. It said it shot down five Indian aircraft, a report the Indian embassy in Beijing dismissed as "misinformation".
Pakistani retaliation "is increasingly becoming certain now," Pakistan's Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, told Reuters. "I will still refrain from saying it is 100 per cent. But the situation has become very difficult. We have to respond."
In a statement issued late Thursday, the Pakistan government said it “will not be deterred by attempts to provoke, intimidate or mislead” and reserves the right to respond to acts of aggression.
The two sides have also traded heavy fire across their frontier in disputed Kashmir, and Pakistan claimed it killed scores of Indian soldiers. There was no confirmation from India.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to avenge the deaths in India's missile strikes, raising fears that the two countries could be headed toward another all-out conflict. Leaders from both nations face mounting public pressure to show strength and seek revenge, and the heated rhetoric and competing claims could be a response to that pressure.
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.
With tensions high, India evacuated thousands of people from villages near the highly militarised frontier in the region. 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 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.
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 neutralising them as we speak,” Sharif said on the state-run Pakistan Television early Thursday afternoon.
"Indian drones continue to be sent into Pakistan airspace ... (India) will continue to pay dearly for this naked aggression," he added.
In Lahore, local police official Mohammad Rizwan said a drone was downed near Walton Airport, an airfield in a residential area about 25km from the border with India that also contains military installations.
The Pakistan government also said late Thursday that it "firmly rejects the allegations" it launched attacks on the Indian cities of Pathankot, Jaisalmer and Srinagar.
India’s Defence Ministry said its armed forces “targeted air defence radars and systems" in several places in Pakistan, including Lahore.
"Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets ... using drones and missiles," the defence ministry said in a statement, adding that "these were neutralised" by India's air defence systems.
“The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations,” it said.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told parliament that so far, Pakistan has not responded to India’s missile attacks, but there will be a response at an appropriate time.
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.
EXCHANGES OF FIRE
The two sides have exchanged heavy fire over the past day.
Tarar, the Pakistani information minister, said that the country’s armed forces have killed 40 to 50 Indian soldiers in the exchanges along the Line of Control.
India has not commented on that claim. Earlier, the army said one Indian soldier was killed by shelling on Wednesday.
Tarar denied Indian accusations that Pakistan had fired missiles toward the Indian city of Amritsar, saying in fact an Indian drone fell in the city. Neither claim could be confirmed.
India’s Foreign Ministry has said that 16 civilians were killed on Wednesday during exchanges of fire across the de facto border. It said that all those killed were in the town of Poonch, with 59 others injured, the majority also in the town.
Pakistani officials said six people have been killed near highly militarised frontier in exchanges of fire over the past day.
India on Thursday braced for Pakistan's threatened retaliation.
Local media reported panic buying in some cities in the Indian state of Punjab which shares a border with Pakistan, as people hoarded essentials fearing a Pakistani retaliation to the Indian strikes.
In an editorial on Thursday, the Indian Express wrote "there is no reason to believe that the Pakistan Army has been chastened by the Indian airstrikes", adding that Indian military experts were "aware that Pakistan's armed forces are no pushover".
"Border districts on high alert," The Hindu newspaper headline read, adding that "India must be prepared for escalatory action" by Pakistan.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said New Delhi did not intend to escalate the situation. "However, if there are military attacks on us, there should be no doubt that it will be met with a very, very firm response," he said at a India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting.
His Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, told Reuters that there have been contacts between the offices of the national security advisers of the two countries and the hotline between their heads of military operations was also working. He did not give more details.
In a separate statement, Islamabad said it remains vigilant and "firmly committed to peace," while asserting its right to defend its sovereignty.
Flights remained suspended at over two dozen airports across northern and western regions in India, according to travel advisories by multiple airlines. Pakistan resumed flights nationwide after a suspension at four airports, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
