India Targets Air Defence Units Across Pakistan; Chinese-Made HQ-9 Missile Defence System Units Hit

New Delhi: Air defence units of the Pakistan army in Sialkot and Lahore suffered heavy damage amid reports of drone attacks in 10 cities across the country on Thursday. The incident comes a day after India struck terror camps in Pakistan, in an operation named ‘Sindoor’, in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 lives.

The HQ-9 missile defence system units, developed by China, were hit, effectively rendering the Pakistani army defenceless. In Lahore, sirens went off and people ran out of their homes as a series of loud explosions were heard near Walton airport, Reuters and local media reported. Visuals showed people running out of their houses in panic and reported seeing clouds of smoke.

Police sources told Samaa TV that the explosion might have been caused by a drone, measuring 5-6 feet. The drone was reportedly shot down by jamming the system, the sources said. No casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure have been reported so far.On Wednesday, a joint operation by the Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) destroyed terror camps in nine locations in Pakistan linked to banned outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) under ‘Operation Sindoor’.

The government, however, maintained that no Pakistani military infrastructure was attacked, and the selected sites were chosen with care to prevent the loss of civilian lives. In his first reaction to Operation Sindoor, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif termed it an “act of war” imposed by India. Even though India provided ample visual proof of terror camps being targeted, Pakistan claimed that the strikes killed civilians, including women and children.