New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) Pakistan used 300-400 Turkish-made drones to attack 36 locations in India on the western sector, on the intervening night of May 8-9.
The Pakistani Army also violated the Indian air space several times over the entire western border with the intention to target the military infrastructure. They fired heavy calibre weapons along the LOC and the IB.
“Pakistan used around 300 to 400 drones as an attempt for infiltration at 36 places from Leh to Sir Creek. The Indian Armed Forces used both kinetic and non-kinetic methods and successfully shot down many of these drones,” said Col Sofiya Qureshi at a briefing on Operation Sindoor.
“Pakistan used Türkiye’s Songar drones built by Turkish weapons developer Asisgard in attacks targeted at military installations in India,” she said.
Notably, Turkey is a close friend of Islamabad, and has supported Pakistan and been critical of India over Operation Sindoor.
Along with Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, she said that the drone incursions were aimed at detecting the locations of the aerial defence systems of India.
India launched drone attacks and destroyed an aerial defence radar in Pakistan, she said.
Addressing the briefing, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that while Pakistan claims that they did not target or attack any religious places in India, they had attacked a Gurdwara in Poonch, in which some people were killed.
“Instead of owning up to these attacks Pakistan made the outrageous claim that it was the Indian armed forces and the Indian Air Force that was targeting cities like Amritsar and trying to put the blame on Pakistan," he said, adding that it was part of Pakistan's move to drive a sectarian wedge between people, which would never succeed.
“The provocative and escalatory action taken by Pakistan last night were targeted at Indian cities and civilian infrastructure in addition to some military targets,” he added.
“The Indian armed forces responded adequately and responsibly.”
“I want to underline that the official and blatantly farcical denial of these attacks that Pakistan carried out by the Pakistani state machinery is yet another example of their duplicity and the new depth they are plumbing in the quest for disinformation,” he said in a sharp attack.
The Pakistani attacks come in the wake of Operation Sindoor launched by India on May 7 in which it targeted nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir in revenge for the Pahalgam terror attack.
UNI RN