May 8 (UPI) -- Pakistan said its air defenses brought down at least a dozen Indian attack drones in an overnight aerial assault that killed a civilian and injured four soldiers, with Islamabad accusing New Delhi of "a serious provovation."
Pakistan Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said 12 Israeli-made Harop drones had been shot down across Pakistan, but one had been able stay aloft long enough to partially strike its target near Lahore, injuring the soldiers.
The cvilian was killed in the southeastern Sindh province with a second civilian injured there.
The casualties bring to 31 the number of people killed in the past 24 hours in Indian air and artillery strikes inside Pakistan, Pakistan-administered Kashmir and along the de-facto border in the disputed Himalayan region, with another 57 injured, according to Pakistan.
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Shelling by Pakistani forces across the Line of Control in Kashmir killed at least 16 civilians in the Indian-administered zone, according to the Indian Army which also claimed Pakistan had launched miisiles and drones against "military targets" in its territory.
Drones were downed as far north as the military stronghold of Rawalpindi right down to the Arabian Sea port Karachi in the south, added Chaudhry who said that the Pakistan Air Force was "at a high state of alert and vigilance."
"The security of the region and beyond is at risk," he warned.
The Pakistan military said in a separate statement that it was in the process of recovering the wreckage of long range, remote-controlled Harop "loitering munitions" drones, manufactured by Israel, from sites across the country.
The two sides have been engaged in back-and-forth military strikes since Tuesday night when India launched strikes against what it called "terrorist targets" in Pakistan in what it said was retaliation for a massacre by militants of 26 Indian tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, in April.
Indian forces initially struck nine "terrorist targets" in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered areas of Jammu and Kashmir, with the Indian Army blaming Islamabad for the Pahalgam attack and saying that "justice is served."
Pakistan has denied any involvement and insisted that it is also fighting terrorism.
Pakistan, which claimed to have shot down at least three Indian fighter jets, said 26 people were killed and 46 were injured in the attacks and warned it would respond with force to what it called "an act of war."
