New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Friday as Pakistani missiles and drones attacked western Indian cities and military installations for a third consecutive night.
Earlier today the Prime Minister met the three service chiefs – the Army, Navy, and Air Force – as India preps for a measured and proportionate response to the third night of Pak firing.
Swarms of Pak drones were spotted over Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Punjab, and the Indian military has begun engaging the enemy targets, the government said.
The drones Friday night were spotted over Jammu and Samba in J&K, Pathankot and Ferozepur in Punjab, and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, among other locations. Explosions were heard in Barmer and Pokhran – the site of India’s nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998 – in Rajasthan.
The city of Jammu fell into darkness after blasts were heard. “Intermittent sounds of blasts, probably heavy artillery, can now be heard…” J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on X.
READ | ‘Can Hear Sounds Of Blast’: Omar Abdullah As Pak Drones Seen In Jammu
Defence officials said this latest round of attacks were intercepted by the country’s air defence systems, which includes the Russian-made S-400s and significant damage had been averted.
Pak drones were seen over J&K for a third consecutive night.
Late Thursday Pak forces fired 300 to 400 drones, including the Turkish-made Asisguard SONGAR, and missiles at 36 cities across J&K, Rajasthan, and Punjab, prompting air raid sirens and blackouts.
READ | 300-400 Turkish Drones Used By Pak Last Night To Target India: Government
India responded with interceptions guided by the integrated counter-unmanned aerial system, or C-UAS, and missile defence systems like the indigenously built Akash and the Russian-made S-400.
READ | How Indian Defences Protected Nation, Shot Down Pak Missiles, Drones
Pak also fired drones and missiles Wednesday night, hours after India’s Operation Sindoor, which was the armed forces’ precision strike on nine terror camps in Pak and Pak-occupied Kashmir.
These included one in Muridke that was the base of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
A Lashkar proxy, The Resistance Front, had claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. India had earlier said it has proof linking the Pak deep state to the attack, in which 26 people had been killed. The Pak government refuted those links, but the Indian government ripped into those denials Thursday, pointing to overt links between the Pak Army and terrorists.
Meanwhile, after India successfully repelled the first two waves of attacks, government sources told NDTV the efficiency with which the drones were shot down underlines India’s aerial dominance.
READ | India’s ‘We Control Our Skies’ Message After Shooting Pak Missiles
India, the sources said, ‘is not just capable of defending its skies… it now controls them’.
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