• One casualty each reported from Attock, Rawalpindi, Ghotki districts; four troops wounded in Lahore
• Military spokesperson says Israeli-made Harop drones used; calls intrusion ‘a serious, serious provocation’
• India acknowledges carrying out strikes; ISPR chief says New Delhi should ‘transition from cinema into real world’

ISLAMABAD: At least three people lost their lives and seven, including four soldiers, sustained injuries as Pakistan intercepted and destroyed as many as 25 Indian drones that had intruded into its airspace across the country, possibly to target military installations.

According to the military, the locations where these drones were neutralised included Lahore, Attock, Gujranwala, Chakwal, Rawalpindi, and Bahawalpur in Punjab, as well as Sukkur, Umerkot and Karachi in Sindh.

Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the military’s chief spokesperson, confirmed that one civilian lost their life while another sustained injuries in Miano.

Moreover, as per police, one person each was slain in Attock and Rawalpindi.

“One drone, however, managed to engage a military target near Lahore partially,” said the army spokesperson. “Four men of the Pakistan Army have been injured in this attack near Lahore and partial damage to an equipment has occurred,” he said.

The rest of the drones apparently missed their potential targets and caused damages in densely populated areas.

Three drones were shot down in Walton and Burki, near Lahore. Officials said two drones crashed in Walton, while another crashed in Burki soon after security forces intercepted them. According to a witness, they heard multiple explosions in the old Walton airport area, leading to widespread confusion among locals.

In Rawalpindi, one person — a resident of Lahore — lost his life and two were inj­ured after a drone crashed near the Pindi Cricket Stadium on the Murree Road.

A police officer said that the stadium’s food street was not fully open and there were not many people around ; otherwise, there could have been more casualties.

Another drone damaged a house after it crashed on its rooftop in the Westridge locality of the garrison city. However, no casualties were reported.

In Attock, a farmer was killed near Jabbi Kasran — a town in Fateh Jang tehsil — after an Indian drone was downed. The injured person was taken to hospital, but could not survive.

In Gujranwala, three drones were destroyed in different locations of the district. The locals found wreckage of the drones in the Tokrian village of Wahndo and Solakhanabad village on the outskirts of the city. Another drone was found in a field near Aimanabad’s Agu Bhandar village of Gujranwala.

In Gujrat, parts of an Indian drone were found in Peer Jhand village in the jurisdiction of the Dinga police station. According to eyewitnesses, some parts of the drone fell in the field while some crashed on a house, falling through its roof into a room on the ground floor. However, everyone remained safe.

In Bahawalpur, an Ind­ian drone was destroyed in the Cholistan desert. According to the announcement, the Indian drone hit the area of Chapoowala in the desert in the limits of tehsil Yazman.

In Karachi, two drones fell on the outskirts of the Malir district, partially damaging the roof of a house. The first drone fell on a house in the Sharafi Goth slum, said area police SHO Sadaruddin Mirani. It damaged the roof partially, but no one was hurt. He said the incident occu­rred at around 10:30am.

The officer said that the drone was two and a half feet long.

Soon after, another dr­­o­ne fell near the residential neighbourhood of Gulshan-i-Hadeed.

Malir SP Mansoor Gulzar Bozdar told Dawn the drone fell in a hilly area near Link Road. He said it did not cause any damage to life or property.

In Umerkot, an Indian drone also crashed near the village of Sufi Akbar, close to the Chhor cantonment. Fortunately, no casualties or injuries were reported.

‘Serious, serious provocation’

India also admitted that it targetted military installations.

A statement by India’s Press Information Bureau said army installations were targeted “at a number of locations across Pakistan”. However, the attacks mostly took place in areas heavily populated by civilians.

As he shared details about the operation that downed drones, Lt-Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that the Pakistan Army used “their soft-kill (technical) and hard-kill (weapons) skills fully” to shoot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones.

Referring to Pakistan’s response to Indian strikes, the ISPR press release said, “After the destruction of its five modern jets, drones and several posts, as well as soldier deaths, India is attacking Pakistan using these Israeli-made Harop drones in panic.”

“This cowardly attack is a sign of India’s worry and panic,” it added.

“The debris of these Israeli-made Harop drones is being collected from various locations across Pakistan,” the military’s media wing said. It asserted that the Pakistan Army was “giving a befitting reply to the enemy and crushing all its nefarious designs”.

During the press briefing, the military’s media spokesman also showed a series of pictures showing the debris of the drones. He added that the debris and downed drones were being collected from multiple locations.

“As we speak, the process of India sending across these Harop drones, this naked aggression continues, and the armed forces are on high degree of alert and neutralising them as we speak,” Lt-Gen Chaudhry continued.

“This is a serious, serious provocation,” the ISPR chief added.

According to BBC News, Lt-Gen Chaudhry said the Indian government needs to transition from “cinema” into the “real world we live in” and called the strikes a “phantom defence”.

Asif Chaudhry in Lahore, Waseem Ashraf Butt in Gujrat, Majeed Gill in Bahawalpur and Mohammad Asghar in Rawalpindi also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2025