Pakistan’s military on Saturday said India launched another wave of missiles targeting three air bases — including one on the outskirts of the capital — as the conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours spiralled toward full-blown war.
The South Asian countries have exchanged fire since Wednesday, when India launched air strikes on what it called ‘terrorist’ sites in Pakistani territory after a deadly attack on tourists on the Indian side of the divided Kashmir region.
The clashes — which have involved missiles, drones, and exchanges of fire along the de-facto border in disputed Kashmir — are the worst in decades and have killed more than 50 civilians.
Military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry in a live broadcast aired by state television in the middle of the night said India had ‘attacked with missiles’ targeting three air bases.
He said a ‘majority of the missiles’ had been intercepted and ‘no flying assets’ had been damaged.
One of the bases targeted, Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi, the garrison city where the army is headquartered, is around 10 kilometres from the capital Islamabad.
Several blasts were heard from the capital overnight.
The air base is used to receive foreign dignitaries and Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs Adel Al-Jubeir had departed just hours earlier.
‘Now you just wait for our response,’ Chaudhry warned India.
The fighting comes two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 tourists, mostly Hindu men.
India blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba — a UN-designated terrorist organisation — for the attack but Pakistan has denied any involvement and called for an independent probe.
The countries have fought several wars over the Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate portions of since gaining independence from British rule in 1947.
Previous clashes have been mostly limited to the Kashmir region, separated by a heavily militarised border known as the Line of Control, but this time India has struck multiple cities deep in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry alleged New Delhi’s ‘reckless conduct has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict’.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met top security officials on Friday, including his national security advisor, defence minister and the chiefs of the armed forces, his office said.
Most of the more than 50 deaths, which included children, were in Pakistan during Wednesday’s first air strikes by India.
On Friday, the Indian army said it had ‘repulsed’ waves of Pakistani attacks using drones and other munitions overnight, and gave a ‘befitting reply’.
Pakistan’s military spokesman denied that Islamabad was carrying out such attacks, and vowed revenge for the initial Indian strikes.
Pakistani military sources said its forces had shot down 77 in the last two days, with debris of many incursions seen by AFP in cities across the country.
An Indian army spokeswoman on Friday spoke of ‘300 to 400’ Pakistani drones, but it was impossible to verify that claim independently.
Pakistan has accused India of fabricating the drone strikes, and early Saturday its military claimed Delhi’s forces had bombed their own territory in Amritsar, without providing evidence.