India foils Pakistan military's attempts to engage targets in North, West India

Indian Armed forces foiled attempts by the Pakistani military to engage a number of military targets in Northern and Western India using drones and missiles last night and destroyed a Pakistani air defence system in Lahore, officials said on Thursday.

The Pakistani military attempted to target Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj, they said.

These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter Unmanned Aircraft System (Grid and Air Defence systems), the defence ministry said.

"The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations that prove the Pakistani attacks," it said.

"Today morning Indian armed forces targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. Indian response has been in the same domain with the same intensity as Pakistan," the ministry said in a readout.

"It has been reliably learnt that an air defence system at Lahore has been neutralised," it said.

The ministry said Pakistan has increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using mortars and heavy calibre artillery in areas in Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri, Poonch, Mendhar and Rajouri sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Sixteen innocent lives have been lost, including three women and five children, due to Pakistani firing," the ministry said.

Here too, India was compelled to respond to bring mortar and artillery fire from Pakistan to a halt, it said.

"Indian Armed Forces reiterate their commitment to non-escalation, provided it is respected by the Pakistani military," the ministry said.