A day after India hit multiple terror in-frastructure in Pa-kistan and Pakistan-occu-pied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor, Pakis-tan in the early hours of Thursday launched a “sub-stantial” number of mis-siles and loitering muni-tions targeting civilian and military locations in North-ern and Western India – all of which were intercepted by the Indian air defence systems.
Late in the evening, the Indian air defence systems also intercepted and des-troyed eight missiles fired by Pakistan towards Satwa-ri, Samba, R.S. Pura, and Arnia in Jammu. Pakistani drones were also being en-gaged over Jammu and Pathankot, sources said.
The Indian armed forc-es hit back on Thursday morning with loitering munitions
prove the attacks.” Sources in the know said military targets in Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi were among those hit in res-ponse.
A government official said more than 100 companies f Central Reserve Pol-ice Force (CRPF) – over 10,000 personnel – are be–ing sent to the Jammu re-gion in the wake of Opera-tion Sindoor. personnel have The been drawn from training and reserve battalions and will be posted in Jammu region primarily, the official said
“While some companies are on their way, others will reach in a day or two,” the official added.
The Indian air defence systems that acted on Thurday include the S-400 Triumf very long-range air defence systems from Russia and the in-digenous Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM) sys-tem, among others, it has been learnt.
Speaking at an event, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said India had always played the role of a responsible nation, but cautioned that if anyone tried to take advantage of its restraint, they would face “quality action”. “No limit will become an ob-stacle in protecting India’s sovereignty, fully pre-pared for responsible responses in the future,” he said. The Defence Ministry reiterated that India’s response under Operation Sindoor was “focused, measured and non-escalatory” and also that Pa-kistani military establishments had not been tar-geted.
Videos on social media showed an HQ-9 sur-face-to-air missile system from China, located in Lahore cantonment, being hit by what looked like Herop loitering munitions, among others. The Pa-kistan military spokesperson also said at a press conference that India had fired several Herops on their military targets in various locations.
“Pakistan military launched loitering muni-tions at several locations, likely targeting military locations, all of which were shot down by Indian air defences. The remnants of interceptors seen in Amritsar were also from that action. We thwarted their attack on civilian as well as military targets,” official sources said. Subsequently, Pakistan air defences were hit by the Indian armed forces us-ing loitering munitions and several air defence systems were destroyed, the sources said, adding that the operation was under progress.
On the situation along the Line of Control (LoC), which has been tense since the Pahalgam terror attack, the Ministry said Pakistan had in-creased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the LoC using mortars and heavy calibre artillery in areas in Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri, Poonch, Mendhar and Rajouri sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sixteen people, including three women and five children, were killed in the Pakistani firing, the Ministry said adding, “Here too, India was compelled to respond to bring mortar and artil-lery fire from Pakistan to a halt.”