‘Missiles in skies’: Panic in Indian frontier cities as war clouds gather

New Delhi, India — Aqib Parray was standing at a local shop near his home in Jammu, in Indian-administered Kashmir, when all the lights went out late in the evening on Thursday, May 8. Loud bangs followed.

Panicked, everyone on the streets started rushing home, 24-year-old Parray said. From the terrace of his home, he said, “I saw that the missiles were scattered in the skies.” Then his internet also went off. “We have never seen Jammu like this.”

Two generations of Indians and Pakistanis have not witnessed a fully fledged war, with blackouts and the threat of missiles raining on them even if they are far from any battlefield. In 1999, the nations fought a war over the icy heights of Kargil, but the conflict was contained.

Now, as India and Pakistan edge closer to a fully fledged war, millions of people on both sides are witnessing scenes unprecedented in their lifetimes. They include the 750,000 people of Jammu, and millions more in Indian cities that on Thursday evening came under attack, according to the Indian government.

Eight missiles were fired from Pakistan-origin drones towards Jammu and nearby areas of Satwari and Samba, also targeting military stations in Udhampur and Indian Punjab’s Pathankot, said India’s Ministry of Defence. India says they were all brought down with no casualties.

Shortly after, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar denied that the country had targeted any locations in Indian-administered Kashmir or across the international border.

Yet the mounting anxiety across cities in India and Indian-administered Kashmir close to the frontier with Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir is real. Seventeen days after gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam, and two days after India hit at least six Pakistani cities with missiles, the prospect of a war looms over communities close to the border.

‘Sleepless nights’

Soon after dusk, authorities in Indian Punjab issued complete blackout orders in several districts, including its capital city of Chandigarh, and Jalandhar, Pathankot and Mohali.

Sabarpreet Singh, a 46-year-old businessman from Amritsar, Punjab’s second-largest city, said he is learning to react during sudden blackouts. “Things are changing very quickly. I have not been able to sleep at night,” he said. “I’m thinking of leaving the city with my children [and wife]; they are scared when sirens go off.”

Late on Wednesday, a blackout was imposed in parts of Kutch, in Gujarat; and in bordering areas of Rajasthan, where the border with Pakistan goes through the Thar Desert.

The situation is much more dire along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Both armies traded heavy artillery as civilian injuries and deaths continued to rise. Amid gunfire, India has moved to evacuate thousands of people, who now sleep in shelters overnight.

“There were attempts to target military sites in Jammu, including the defence airport,” a local intelligence official told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media. “We have confidence in [Indian] defence systems, however, the security situation is deteriorating. We are monitoring every moment closely.”

That India should be on edge is understandable, said Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

After India struck deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir on May 7, killing at least 31 people – “terrorists” according to India, civilians (including two children) according to Pakistan – Islamabad and its military are under immense pressure to respond forcefully, he said.

“Pakistan was bound to retaliate. Neither the government nor the civil society in Pakistan was willing to de-escalate without a response,” Donthi said.

‘Senseless belligerence’

In a media briefing on Thursday, New Delhi said that Pakistan had earlier that day attempted to “engage military targets” in several cities in India and Indian-administered Kashmir, including Srinagar and Amritsar, using drones and missiles.

While Indian officials said that forces “neutralised” these attempts, New Delhi said it responded by targeting Pakistan’s air defence systems at several locations, including in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-biggest city.

Islamabad said its air defence system brought down 25 Indian drones overnight in several cities, including Lahore and Karachi. At least one civilian has died, and five people were wounded, the Pakistani military said.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri reiterated on Thursday that any forthcoming Pakistani attack would be responded to by New Delhi. He insisted that India was merely responding to escalation by Pakistan, also referring to the Pahalgam attack as “the original escalation point”.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by denying any attacks on India or Indian-administered Kashmir, noting, “Any escalation based on false pretences will be met with full resolve and determination.”

Referring to global calls for restraint and de-escalation, Sumantra Bose, a political scientist focusing on the intersection of nationalism and conflict in South Asia, said, “The situation needs an urgent intervention by the international community, with effective diplomatic efforts to de-escalate.”

“There is no support in the world for this senseless conflict,” said Bose, which he said, “has been rather mismanaged – and should never have been allowed to get to this point.”

“Things have gotten out of hand very quickly and it is looking to get worse,” he said, reacting to the drone warfare and the alleged attacks on Jammu. “In the escalatory spiral, it is just retaliations; an endless loop of retaliations from both sides.”

Later on Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, “We are remaining engaged with both governments at multiple levels.”

Acknowledging that Pakistan wants an “independent investigation” into the Pahalgam attack, Bruce said that the United States wants “the perpetrators to be held accountable and are supportive of any efforts to that end.”

However, Indian Foreign Secretary Misri had already rejected the calls for an independent investigation earlier in a media briefing, citing “no confidence in the Pakistani establishment for cooperation”.

The Trump administration, Donthi said, had, at least until May 7, “appeared willing to let the situation unfold between India and Pakistan”.

“Unless the US and other international powers intervene more proactively to defuse the situation, it could lead to a full-blown war,” Donthi told Al Jazeera.

Bose, the political scientist, argued that “it is already a state of war.”

“It would be much worse unless there is urgent, and effective, diplomatic intervention that makes the key decision makers, namely the Indian government and Pakistan’s military, to end this senseless belligerence and the spiral of escalation.”