Islamabad says it shot down 12 Indian drones; GoI calls it ‘fake narrative’

1 civilian dead, 4 Pakistani army personnel injured, reports say

Pakistan’s military on Thursday said it had shot down 12 Israeli-made Harop drones launched by India at multiple locations overnight, calling it yet another act of “blatant aggression” as cross-border hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbours intensify, international media reported.

However, Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s nodal agency for disseminating information, has fact-checked the fake and baseless narrative being spread by Pakistani handles, pertaining to the drone being intercepted in Gujaranwala.

Military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, in a televised statement from Rawalpindi, said the drones were intercepted in cities including Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Attock, Ghotki, Gujranwala, and Chakwal. He added that Pakistan’s armed forces remain on “high alert” as the drone campaign from India continues.

“Last night, that is the night of 7th and 8th May, India has undertaken yet another blatant military act of aggression against Pakistan by sending Harop drones at multiple locations,” Chaudhry said as per various news organisations telecating his interview. “Pakistan Armed Forces… have so far neutralised 12 Harop drones.”

Chaudhry said that one drone partially struck a military target near Lahore, injuring four army personnel and damaging equipment. Separately, a civilian was killed when a drone crashed in Sarfaraz Leghari village in the Ghotki district of Sindh, police was quoted as saying in Arab News report.

According to the Arab News, the cross-border drone campaign began after India launched missile strikes a day earlier across several Pakistani cities, including areas in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The strikes killed 31 people and wounded 57, Pakistan claimed.

New Delhi has said that the strikes was a response to the April 22 attack in Kashmir region that left 26 Indian tourists dead. India’s foreign ministry said it targeted nine “terrorist infrastructure” locations across the border.

In response, Islamabad claimed to have downed five Indian fighter jets and a combat drone, though New Delhi has not officially commented on either the drone losses or the downing of its aircraft as of Thursday evening.

The Anadolu Agency quoted Chaudhry as saying the situation marks a “serious provocation” and urged the international community to take note of India’s continued “naked aggression” in a highly charged environment.

According to India’s foreign ministry, 13 civilians were killed and 59 injured in cross-border firing along the Line of Control (LoC). The Indian army also confirmed the death of one of its soldiers in the LoC region on Wednesday night.

“The image being circulated is from the Ukraine-Russia conflict in 2022,” informed the Press Information Bureau (PIB), on X and also shared a weblink to ascertain the source of the image.

A a flood of misinformation and false propaganda is being peddled from across the border by influencers, media, as well as government-sponsored social media handles, it said.

The latest lie being peddled by Pakistani handles is the interception of an Indian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in Pakistan’s Gujranwala region and subsequently shot down by the Pakistan Army.

This comes a day after the Indian Army launched multiple cross-border strikes via niche weapons, including drones, missiles and guided bombs to dismantle terror networks and infrastructure.