India and Pakistan tension mounting amid attacks and accusations

Tensions continue to mount as India and Pakistan traded accusations and attacks across their frontier in Kashmir overnight and into Friday.

Blasts rang out across Indian-administered Kashmir and the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in neighbouring Punjab state late on Friday, according to witnesses and the Reuters news agency, which cited local officials.

Projectiles and flashes were seen in the night sky above the Indian Kashmir city of Jammu, and explosions were heard around Srinagar airport, reports said. Indian officials also said a drone strike targeted the city of Ferozepur in Punjab.

While India blamed Pakistan, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Pakistan’s military spokesman, claimed that India fired ballistic missiles that fell inside Indian territory. Two explosions were also heard in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi in the early hours of Saturday.

Early on Friday, New Delhi and Islamabad accused one another of launching drone attacks as well as “numerous ceasefire violations” over the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed territory. The ongoing hostilities have provoked further calls for restraint as the risk of an escalation between the two nuclear powers grows.

Pakistan launched “multiple attacks” using drones and other munitions along India’s western border on Thursday night and early Friday, the Indian army said, claiming it had repelled the attacks and responded forcefully, although it did not provide details.

Islamabad has denied any cross-border attacks and instead accused Indian forces of sending drones into Pakistani territory, killing at least two civilians. The Pakistani military claims to have shot down 25 Indian drones in recent days.

Local officials in areas near the LoC reported an unusually intense night of artillery exchanges that left at least four civilians dead and wounded 12, with firing continuing well into Friday morning.

Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the Indian army statement was “baseless and misleading”, and that Pakistan had not undertaken any “offensive actions” targeting areas within Indian-administered Kashmir or beyond the country’s border.

Islamabad had earlier denied attacking Pathankot city in India’s Punjab state, Srinagar in the Kashmir valley, and Rajasthan state’s Jaisalmer, saying the accusations were “unfounded” and “politically motivated”.

On Friday, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri slammed Pakistan’s “farcical” response after it denied launching waves of drone and missile attacks.

During a news briefing on India’s Operation Sindoor, Misri said Pakistan also claimed that India was staging attacks on Poonch and Amritsar in an “effort to deceive the world … That we would attack our cities is the kind of deranged statement that only Pakistan could put out”.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military spokesman Chaudhry told a separate news briefing that his country “will not de-escalate” with India. “With the damages India did on our side, they should take a hit. So far, we have been protecting ourselves, but they will get an answer in our own timing,” he said on Friday.

South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman warned that the spread of “disinformation is escalating as rapidly as the hostilities”.

“Both are very dangerous for different reasons. Follow the fact-checkers,” he posted on social media, urging the public to rely on verified sources.

‘None of our business’

India launched “Operation Sindoor” on Wednesday, targeting what it described as fighter camps inside Pakistan in retaliation for an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.

New Delhi has accused Islamabad of backing the perpetrators, an allegation Pakistan strongly denies.

Since then, exchanges of fire, drone activity, and airspace violations have intensified, leaving nearly four dozen people dead, the majority in Pakistan.

The ongoing clashes mark one of the worst escalations between the nuclear-armed rivals in recent years. The pair has fought three full-scale wars over Kashmir, which both claim, since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

World powers from the United States to China have called on both sides to exercise restraint.

The White House says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in constant contact with the leaders of both India and Pakistan. He spoke to both on Thursday and urged “immediate de-escalation”, his spokeswoman said.

President Donald Trump also wants to see a de-escalation of the conflict, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Friday.

Vice President JD Vance echoed the call, but underlined that Washington was “not going to get involved in the middle of a war that’s fundamentally none of our business”.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on a visit to New Delhi, also urged restraint. “We hope that India and Pakistan will prevent the escalation of tension in the region,” he said upon arrival.

China, a close ally of Pakistan, called India’s cross-border strikes “regrettable” and urged both governments to show restraint.

“India and Pakistan are and will always be each other’s neighbours,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “We urge both sides to act in the interest of regional peace and stability and refrain from any actions that could worsen the situation.”