By Aftab Ahmed, Charlotte Greenfield and Shivam Patel
JAMMU, India/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -India and Pakistan accused each other of launching drone and artillery attacks overnight into Friday morning, as tourists and villagers fled the third day of the worst fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours in nearly three decades.
Sirens rang out in cities in the conflict’s Kashmir flashpoint and beyond and people were told to stay indoors. India’s cricket board suspended the IPL – the sport’s richest tournament – and the Pakistan Super League moved matches to the UAE.
The old foes have been clashing since India struck several areas that it described as “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan on Wednesday in retaliation for a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month.
Pakistan dismissed Indian accusations that it was involved. Both countries have exchanged cross-border fire and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other’s airspace, alarming world powers who have called for restraint.
Around 48 people have been killed since Wednesday, according to casualty estimates on both sides of the border that have not been independently verified.
The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947. The countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, and clashed many times.
CLASHING ACCUSATIONS
India’s airforce said Pakistan used Turkish drones to attack 36 locations on India’s west and northwest, in Kashmir and further afield in states bordering Pakistan all the way to the edge of the Arabian Sea.
India responded with drones on targets in Pakistan and destroyed one air defence system, Indian Air Force officer Vyomika Singh told a media briefing.
Singh said Pakistan used commercial flights as “a shield” during the drone attack, by letting airlines operate on its side of the border in a bid to deter or weaken India’s response. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan.
India’s Border Security Force said a “major infiltration bid” was foiled in Kashmir’s Samba region on Thursday night. Shells were still falling in the Uri area on Friday, according to a security official who did not want to be named.
“Several houses caught fire and were damaged in the shelling in the Uri sector … One woman was killed and three people were injured in overnight shelling,” the official said.
Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar dismissed earlier Indian accusations of Pakistani attacks as “baseless and misleading” and said Pakistan had not carried out any “offensive actions”.
In Pakistani Kashmir, officials said heavy shelling from across the border killed five civilians, including an infant, and wounded 29 others in the early hours of Friday.
India’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The fighting is the deadliest since a limited conflict between the two countries in Kashmir’s Kargil region in 1999.
SIRENS IN AMRITSAR
In Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir that came under drone attack on Thursday night, shops and businesses began shutting at 5 p.m. (1130 GMT) on Friday and the streets were largely empty as people rushed home.
In neighbouring Punjab state, authorities told people that sirens should be taken seriously and not considered drills. “Remember: Silence, darkness and discipline – these are the things that save lives,” they said in social media posts.
Sirens blared for more than two hours on Friday in the Punjab city of Amritsar, which houses the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs.
No attacks followed, but tourists fled the city by road as the airport was closed.
“We really wanted to stay but the loud sounds, sirens, and blackouts are giving us sleepless nights. Our families back home are worried for us so we have booked a cab and are leaving,” said a British national who did not want to be named.
Schools and coaching centres were closed in the Bikaner region of India’s desert state of Rajasthan, and residents near the Pakistan border said they were asked to move further away and consider moving in with relatives or using accommodation arranged by the government.
Further south in Bhuj in Gujarat, authorities said tourist buses had been kept on standby in case they needed to evacuate people near the Pakistan border.
India’s Directorate General of Shipping directed all ports, terminals and shipyards to increase security, amid “growing concerns regarding potential threats”.
Indian shares fell for a second straight session on Friday, losing about $83 billion in market value, with both key stock indexes losing 1.1%.
Pakistan’s benchmark share index closed 3.52% higher with traders crediting a fall off in violence after Thursday’s clashes.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Jammu, Charlotte Greenfield, Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Saurabh Sharma in Amritsar, Rupam Jain in New Delhi, Ariba Shahid in Karachi, Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar,; Additional reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Writing by Sakshi Dayal and YP Rajesh; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
