Pakistan army spokesman say India has fired missiles at 3 of its air bases, raising conflict fears

ISLAMABAD – India fired missiles at three air bases inside Pakistan but most of the missiles were intercepted, Pakistan’s army spokesman said Saturday, in a move that raised fears of a wider conflict.

Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif said in a televised address that all Pakistan Air Force assets were safe. He added that some of the Indian missiles also hit India’s eastern Punjab.

The Pakistani army spokesman said the missiles fired by India targeted the Nur Khan air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Murid air base in Chakwal city and Rafiqui air base in the Jhang district in the eastern Punjab province.

Sharif said some of the missiles fired by India also went into Afghanistan, and Pakistan has evidence to prove it.

Sharif said that “continuing its naked aggression, India, some time back, has fired air-to-surface missiles with its jets.”

“These blatant acts of aggression by India reflect the paranoia within the Indian mindset which continues to grow after the failure of each of its acts and the paranoia continues also to grow as it realizes that they cannot break the resolve and will of the people of Pakistan,” Sharif said.

The latest developments came after Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy volleys of shells and gunfire across their frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir overnight, killing at least five civilians in a growing military standoff that erupted following an attack on tourists in the India-controlled portion of the disputed region.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have soared since the attack on a popular tourist site in India-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Hindu Indian tourists, on April 22. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack, an accusation Islamabad rejects.

On Wednesday, India conducted airstrikes on several sites in Pakistani territory it described as militant-related, killing 31 civilians, according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets.

On Thursday, India said it thwarted Pakistani drone and missile attacks at military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, including Jammu city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan denied that it carried out drone attacks. India said, meanwhile, that it hit Pakistan’s air defense systems and radars close to the city of Lahore. The incidents could not be independently confirmed.

The Indian army said Friday that Pakistan fired about 300 to 400 drones overnight in violation of Indian airspace to target military installations in nearly three dozen sites along the western borders. India brought down a number of the drones using “kinetic and non-kinetic means,” Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian air force told a news conference.

Sharif refuted India’s claims of firing 300 to 400 drones. “At least show us the debris of one drone to prove the charge,” he said at a news briefing on Friday.

Sharif said that since Wednesday night India had fired 77 Israeli-made attack drones into Pakistan, all of which were neutralized and their debris collected by Pakistani forces.

“Whatever they will send, we will convert it into debris,” he said.