India Pakistan updates: Air raid sirens go off in several Punjab, Haryana towns

Air raid sirens going off, complete blackout and loud explosions – these were the scenes in several border towns in India o the intervening night of Thursday-Friday.

The Indian Army on Friday said that it effectively repulsed multiple attacks, using drones and other munitions, by Pakistan along the entire western border on the intervening night of May 8 and May 9.

At least eight Pakistani missiles were intercepted at Satwari, Samba, RS Pura and Arnia in the Jammu region as India’s S400 air defence system shot down hostile missiles at multiple places along the western border.

Blackouts and sirens were activated across the Jammu region. Sirens were also heard in Akhnoor, Samba, Baramulla and Kupwara.

On Thursday, the Indian military had said it thwarted attempts by Pakistan forces to hit several military targets in 15 cities in the country’s north and west using missiles and drones, and targeted Pakistan’s air defence network at several locations in that country, with the one in Lahore being destroyed in the counter-attack.

The development came a day after India launched precision strikes on nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people on April 22. The mission was codenamed Operation Sindoor. Union defence minister Rajnath Singh told an all-party meeting on Thursday that at least 100 terrorists were killed in the operation.

More on India-Pak tensions

Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, the US has said it is not going to get involved in a war that’s “fundamentally none of our business”.

US vice president JD Vance said in a television interview that while the US cannot control India and Pakistan, it can encourage the two nuclear-armed neighbours to de-escalate.

The ministry of civil aviation has informed that 24 airports are closed for civil flight operations as of Thursday evening amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. Here’s the full list.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has also issued a detailed advisory on Thursday mandating stricter security protocols at airports nationwide. Airlines have asked passengers to arrive at airports at least three hours before departure.

Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) has said that India has asked it to block 8,000 accounts on the social media platform. While it confirmed that it would comply by restricting access to the listed accounts within India, ‘X’ said that it is “not an easy decision”.

Leaves of government employees in Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan were cancelled as hostilities ramped up between India and Pakistan, with several border areas, including Jammu, coming under cross-border shelling.