NEW DELHI (AFP): India's government said Thursday that Pakistan launched an overnight air attack using "drones and missiles", before New Delhi retaliated to destroy an air defence system in Lahore.
"Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets... using drones and missiles," India's defence ministry said in a statement, adding that "these were neutralised" by air defence systems.
New Delhi said that areas targeted included sites in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and India's Punjab state -- including the key cities of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh -- as well as Bhuj in Gujarat state.
"The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations," it added.
The defence ministry said that on Thursday morning its military had "targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan", saying that the "response has been in the same domain, with the same intensity, as Pakistan".
It added that it had been "reliably learnt that an air defence system at Lahore has been neutralised".
India also accused Pakistan of having "increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using mortars and heavy calibre artillery" across the de facto border in Jammu and Kashmir
India also said the number of people who have been killed by Pakistani firing since the escalation of violence on Wednesday had risen to 16, including three women and five children.
India added that it remained committed to "non-escalation, provided it is respected by the Pakistani military".
Meanwhile, Pakistan's army said Thursday it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border.
At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday's violence, including children.
Pakistan's military said in a statement Thursday that it had "so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones" at multiple location across the country.
"Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations," Pakistan's military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said from the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi, where a drone was downed.
"One managed to engage in a military target near Lahore," he said, adding that four troops in the city were injured.
