KARACHI: The Pakistan military said on Thursday it had shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones launched by India at multiple locations, while India said it had “neutralized” Pakistan’s attempts to strike military targets with drones and missiles.

Fighting has escalated between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors since Wednesday when India said it struck nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan, some of them linked to an attack by militants that killed 26 in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22. Pakistan said 31 people were killed in the Indian strikes and vowed to retaliate, subsequently saying it had shot down five Indian aircraft and a combat drone.

The conflict between India and Pakistan has been confined in recent decades mostly to the disputed mountainous region of Kashmir. But the air strikes on Wednesday morning, which also hit the towns of Bahawalpur and Muridke in the heart of the country, were seen in Islamabad as a major escalation.

Early on Thursday morning, reports started emerging from multiple Pakistani cities of explosions and firing, including the two largest cities of the country, Karachi and Lahore.

The military’s media wing subsequently confirmed that India was “attacking Pakistan with Israeli-made Harop drones in panic.” 

The Harop is a standoff loitering munition attack weapon system designed to locate and precisely attack targets, manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries.

“So far, 25 Israeli-made Harop drones have been shot down by the Pakistani army’s soft kill (technical) and hard kill (weapons),” the army said in a statement. “The debris of Israeli-made Harop drones is being collected from different areas of Pakistan.”

In the context of military defense, hard kill refers to destroying or neutralizing an incoming threat, such as a missile or drone, by physically destroying it or its components. Soft kill, on the other hand, aims to defeat the threat by disrupting its guidance or communication signals, often using electronic countermeasures or decoys. 

One drone was shot down over the garrison city of Rawalpindi, military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a separate televised statement. Rawalpindi is home to the Pakistan army’s heavily fortified headquarters.

One drone hit a military target near Lahore, the capital and largest city of the province of Punjab, and the second-largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Four personnel of the Pakistan army were injured in this attack, Chaudhry added. 

Other places where drones were neutralized were Gujranwala, Chakwal, Attock, Bahawalpur, Miano, Chor and near Karachi, which the country’s largest city and commercial capital. 

“As we speak, the process of India sending across these Harop drones, this naked aggression, continues, and the armed forces are on a high degree of alert and neutralizing them,” the army spokesman said. 

Earlier in the day, police reported a civilian casualty in the southern Sindh province, also confirmed by Chaudhry, when a drone crashed in the Sarfaraz Leghari village, located in Ghotki district.

“This morning, a drone fell over two villagers... killing one man and injuring another,” Senior Superintendent of Police Dr. Samiullah Soomro told Arab News over the phone, saying more details would be confirmed following a visit to the site.

“INDIAN RESPONSE”

India’s defense ministry said in a statement on Thursday Pakistan had launched an overnight air attack using “drones and missiles,” before New Delhi retaliated to destroy an air defense system in Lahore.

“Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets ... using drones and missiles,” according to the statement, adding that “these were neutralized” by air defense systems.

New Delhi said 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 defense ministry said on Thursday morning its military had “targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan,” saying 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 defense system at Lahore has been neutralized.”

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has rejected the claims, saying there was no damage to air defenses in Lahore. 

Pakistani authorities have not yet commented on this. 

India also accused Pakistan of having “increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using mortars and heavy caliber artillery” across the de facto border in Jammu and Kashmir

India said the number of people who had been killed by Pakistani firing since the escalation of violence on Wednesday had risen to 16, including three women and five children.

Speaking in parliament, Pakistani Information Ministers said Pakistan had killed 40-50 Indian soldiers and destroyed a brigade headquarter along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Kashmir between the two nations. The claims could not be independently verified.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the past, two of them over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part. 

Since April 22, they have intensified firing and shelling across the Line of Control.

For decades India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of backing separatist and other insurgents in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies.

With inputs from AFP and Reuters

KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: Over 100 yaks have been killed after a mysterious disease broke out in the high-altitude pasture of Shimshal Pamir, local residents said on Wednesday, as officials confirmed the situation and said a medical team had been dispatched for rescue.
Located at 3,100 meters above sea level, Shimshal is the highest settlement in Pakistan’s northern Hunza region and the last village before the country’s border with China.
“A disease broke out in the pasture of Shimshal and so far more than 100 yaks were killed,” Azam Khan, the general secretary of the Shimshal Nature Trust (SNT), a community representative organization in the valley, told Arab News over the phone.
“Many yaks are ill,” he continued. “We farmers are facing huge economic losses. My two young yaks, worth Rs400,000 [$1,423], were also killed due to this disease.”
“Shimshal valley is home to more than 1,600 people,” he continued. “We rely on tourism and livestock farming to make ends meet. Yak raising is a favorite and profitable hobby for our villagers.”
Khan urged the government to take immediate measures to save the animals.
Naimat Karim, another farmer from the valley, said three of his yaks were killed by the disease.
“Agriculture and livestock farming are our profession. Out of five yaks, I have lost three … This is a financial setback,” he added.
Khuzaima Anwar, the deputy commissioner for Hunza district, confirmed the development, saying a veterinary medical team had been dispatched to the area.
“Our team is on its way to the Shimshal pasture,” he said. “They will diagnose the disease and treat the animals. Once the medical team returns, we will be in a better position to explain the situation.”
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Shehzad Arif, a deputy director at the Gilgit-Baltistan Livestock and Dairy Development Department, said it would take at least three days for the team to reach the Shimshal pastures.
“We received information from the local community on May 5 about the death of yaks in the high-altitude pasture,” he said. “So we formed a team and dispatched them with essential medicines to the area the next day.”
“As far as our information goes, 108 yaks have died in the valley while 80 are ill,” he added.
He refused to speculate about the disease, saying the team would provide more accurate information.
“Yak is the backbone of the economy for the people living in the Karakorum-Himalaya mountain ranges of Gilgit-Baltistan,” Shakoor Ali, head of the Zoology Department at Public School Skardu, told Arab News.
“Yak is rightly known as the coconut of animals, as it provides food in the form of milk and meat, clothing from its hides and wool, and shelter from the tents made out of its hair. Almost all parts of the yak’s body have cultural, economic, medicinal, and religious value,” he continued, adding that Shimshal valley herders would face immense livelihood challenges without them.