Pakistan used civilian planes as a shield for drone attacks: India

India on Friday accused Pakistan of using its civil airlines as a “shield” for its massive drone attacks, which it launched for three successive nights, targeting Indian cities and civilian infrastructure in addition to some military targets. 

India also said Pakistan was targeting and shelling places of worship, including gurdwaras, convents, and temples “with a particular design”, calling it a “new low, even for Pakistan”. 

Hours after India announced that Pakistan attacked with 300-400 drones of Turkish make on the night of May 8-9 —and a number of them were brought down using kinetic and non-kinetic means — Pakistani drones were sighted at 26 locations ranging from Baramulla in the north to Bhuj in the south, along both the international border and the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, said a source in the know. These included suspected armed drones posing potential threats to civilian and military targets. The source said all such aerial threats were being tracked and engaged using counter-drone systems. 

 

India said its armed forces responded proportionately, adequately, and responsibly, and had targeted four air defence sites in Pakistan on Thursday with armed drones of its own, destroying a radar system. Pakistan also continued to carry out artillery shelling across the Line of Control (LoC), in which the Indian Army suffered some losses. 

The day was marked by the Board of Control for Cricket in India postponing the Indian Premier League by a week because of the prevailing situation, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) postponed its two-day annual general meeting (AGM) due from Monday because of the “prevailing evolving circumstances”. Several Union ministers and around 1,500 member companies of the CII were expected to attend the AGM. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, the three service chiefs, and the Chief of Defence Staff to strategise the course of action. 

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman directed banks and other financial institutions to ensure that all digital and core banking infrastructure was fully firewalled and monitored round the clock to prevent breaches or any hostile cyber activity.

Modi also held an extensive interaction with a number of veterans, including former chiefs of the three services. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah took stock of the preparedness in the states bordering Pakistan. 

At a briefing on Friday evening on Operation Sindoor, the army’s Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, the Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri outlined the magnitude of Pakistan’s infiltration on Thursday night and India’s response. 

Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh said Pakistan attempted intrusions at 36 locations along the international border and the LoC, stretching from Leh, in Ladakh, to Sir Creek in Gujarat, using 300-400 drones. They said the possible objective of Pakistan’s large-scale aerial intrusions was to test India’s air defence systems and gather intelligence. The two said that the forensic examination of the drone debris was underway, with preliminary reports suggesting Pakistan employed Turkish Asisguard Songar quadrotor drones. 

Wing Commander Singh highlighted that an armed Pakistani unmanned aerial vehicle attempted to target the Bathinda military station in Punjab later on Thursday night. It was “detected and neutralised”, she added. 

They said Pakistan’s irresponsible behaviour again came to the fore, seen in the light of the fact that it did not close its civil airspace and that “Pakistan is using civil airliners as a shield” despite knowing well that its attack on India would elicit a swift air defence response. 

This is not safe for the unsuspecting civil airliners, including the international flights, which were flying near the international border between India and Pakistan, they pointed out. Misri said Pakistan targeting places of worship was part of a “design” to foment communal disharmony in India. India said it reserved the right to respond, and sources said India was fighting not a people or a country but terrorists. 

Misri underlined the “official and blatantly farcical denial” of these attacks by Pakistan as “yet another example of their duplicity, and the new depths that they are plumbing in their quest for disinformation”. He termed Pakistani allegations that India will attack its own cities a “deranged fantasy”. 

“Perhaps they do it because they are well versed in such action, as their history would show,” he said. To Pakistan’s disinformation that India has targeted Nankana Sahib, Misri said Pakistan was again trying desperately to impart a communal hue to the situation with an intention to create discord, as was seen in the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22. 

“India’s steadfast unity in itself is a challenge to Pakistan,” he said. 

The Ministry of External Affairs said over the past two days, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has had discussions with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. 

The government on Friday said the country had ample food to meet domestic demand but warned traders and wholesalers against hoarding essential food items, creating artificial shortages. It urged people not to buy in panic. 

The central government has empowered the army chief to call out “every officer and every enrolled person” of the Territorial Army (TA) to provide essential guard or to be embodied to support or supplement the regular army. 

In a related development, World Bank President Ajay Banga has said the multilateral agency has no role to play beyond a facilitator in the Indus Waters Treaty, signed by India and Pakistan in 1960, for sharing the waters of the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab.