India on Thursday night repelled multiple Pakistani strikes in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, and clamped a blackout across a wide swathe of the western border, as Islamabad stepped up hostilities hours after New Delhi issued a stern warning against any escalation.
There were unconfirmed reports of Pakistani aircraft, including at least one F-16, being downed and at least one pilot being captured by Indian forces. There were also unconfirmed reports late in the evening that India was using drones to target military locations in Sialkot, Lahore and possibly Islamabad, as a response to the Pakistani strikes.
The shower of drone and missile strikes on military sites seen on Thursday – India had thwarted Pakistani attacks on 15 places the night before – represented the worst face-off between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in decades and ratcheted up fears of a full-blown conflict. It came a day after India’s Operation Sindoor struck nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
Eight Pakistani missiles were intercepted at Satwari, Samba, RS Pura and Arnia in the Jammu region, defence officials said, as India’s S400 air defence system shot down hostile missiles at multiple places along the western border. Drone and missile attacks were confirmed on military stations in Jammu, Pathankot, Udhampur and Jalandhar – all close to the international border.
“Military stations at Jammu, Pathankot & Udhampur were targeted by Pakistani-origin drones and missiles along the international border in J&K today. The threats were swiftly neutralised using kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities in line with established standard operating procedures. No casualties or material losses were reported,” said defence spokesperson Lt Col Suneel Bartwal.
“India remains fully prepared to defend its sovereignty and ensure the safety of its people.”
Officials and eyewitnesses also said several missiles and drones were neutralised in Jaisalmer, and at least three drones in Kutch on Thursday night. There was no confirmation of any civilian or military losses at the time of going to print.
Air raid sirens wailed and blackouts were imposed across a long arc of cities and hamlets – from Jammu to Jaisalmer and Amritsar to Chandigarh – and closed schools in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan. Visuals showed a shower of golden streaks across the night sky and bright flashes where defence systems engaged with incoming projectiles as loud bangs pierced the silence.
Earlier in the day, the Indian military said it thwarted attempts by Pakistan forces to hit several military targets in 15 cities in the country’s north and west using missiles and drones, and targeted Pakistan’s air defence network at several locations in that country, with the one in Lahore being destroyed in the counter-attack.
The unprecedented escalation came hours after India warned Pakistan against any escalation, a day after New Delhi carried out precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure at nine sites in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack two weeks ago, marking the fiercest attack on the neighbouring country since the 1971 war.
Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and EU high representative for foreign affairs Kaja Kallas. “Underlined India’s targeted and measured response to cross-border terrorism. Will firmly counter any attempts at escalation,” Jaishankar posted on X.
Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir — who is understood to be carrying a message from the West Asian country’s leadership — arrived in New Delhi for an unscheduled visit and met Jaishankar.
Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar said there was a “contact” between the Indian and Pakistani national security advisers (NSAs), but later in the day, India downplayed the remarks. “I have no information with regard to contacts between the two national security advisers,” foreign secretary Vikram Misri said.
Misri also said India’s Operation Sindoor was only a response to the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people and warned against any escalation. “Now if there is an attempt at further escalation by Pakistan, it will be responded to in an appropriate domain and therefore the choices entirely that of Pakistan to make.”
Between 1.04 am and 1.30 am on Wednesday, Indian forces used a mix of missiles and smart munitions fired by aircraft and ground forces to target bases of UN-proscribed terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) located across the international border and the Line of Control (LoC). New Delhi released videos of the strikes but didn’t confirm casualties. Islamabad said 31 people were killed and 46 injured.
Earlier on Thursday, India announced that on the night of May 7, Pakistan targeted Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bathinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj.
“Indian response has been in the same domain with the same intensity as Pakistan… It has been reliably learnt that an air defence system at Lahore has been neutralised,” said helicopter pilot Wing Commander Vyomika Singh.
The Indian forces used the Russian-origin S-400 Triumf air defence system, Akash surface-to-air missiles, a variety of anti-drone systems and other counter-measures to defeat the incoming threats that were swiftly engaged after being detected and tracked by an integrated network of radars and, command and control systems, people aware of the matter said, asking not to be named.
Kamikaze drones, including the Harops bought from Israel, were deployed to target air defence networks in Pakistan, the people said. Pakistan’s bid to escalate was negated and drew a proportionate response, the defence ministry said.
Vyomika Singh and Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, both dressed in combat fatigues, addressed the media alongside Misri on Thursday. Military officers posted in Delhi usually wear battle fatigues on Friday as a token of support for their forward-deployed colleagues.
Fighter jets, military transport aircraft, and many military facilities and headquarters are based in the cities that the Pakistan military sought to target, in a brazen night-long attempt to escalate tensions.
“On the night of May 7-8, 2025, Pakistan attempted to engage several military targets in northern and Western India…using drones and missiles. These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter UAS (unmanned aerial system) grid and air defence systems. The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations that prove the Pakistani attacks,” said Singh, who flies Chetak and Cheetah helicopters.
India’s “measured, non-escalatory and proportionate” strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK were a response to the Pahalgam terror attack and aimed at pre-empting and deterring more cross-border assaults, Misri said during a briefing on Wednesday.
The defence ministry reiterated that point on Thursday. During the press briefing. India had called its response focused, measured and non-escalatory. It was specifically mentioned that Pakistani military establishments had not been targeted. It was also reiterated that any attack on military targets in India will invite a suitable response,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
The Indian armed forces reiterate their commitment to non-escalation, provided it is respected by the Pakistani military, it added.
The last time the Indian armed forces attacked Pakistan’s central Punjab province was during the war of 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh. Operation Sindoor went far beyond the response to the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing by the JeM that killed 40 Indian troops and sparked tit-for-tat air strikes, and the retaliatory cross-LoC raids for the death of 19 soldiers in the Uri terror attack of 2016.
The name for the action — Operation Sindoor — was a reference to the red vermillion that many Hindu women wear in their hair to signify their married status. During the Pahalgam terror attack, the husbands of several women were killed in front of them, including a young Indian Navy officer.
The five terror training camps targeted with precision weapons across the LoC in J&K were between nine and 30 km inside PoK, while the four targets on the other side of the international border (IB) were six to 100 km inside Pakistan.
On the afternoon of April 22, a group of heavily armed terrorists emerged from the woods and targeted tourists on the Baisaran grassland, killing 26 people, 25 of them tourists and 24 of them Hindu, in a killing reminiscent of the heyday of terrorism in the 1990s and 2000s and the worst to rock the country since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba’s proxy, The Resistance Front (TRF), initially claimed responsibility for the attack that coincided with US vice president JD Vance’s visit to India. New Delhi has since identified three Pakistani terrorists and tracked their digital footprints to underline Islamabad’s role in the attack.
Over the last two weeks, tensions spiralled across the LoC and the international border as Pakistan has flagrantly violated a ceasefire by targeting the Indian side at numerous sites with small-arms fire. That appeared to reach a boiling point on Thursday night.