Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR), confirmed on Wednesday that Indian airstrikes martyred 26 civilians and injured 46 others in Pakistan overnight.

He revealed that India launched 24 airstrikes on six different civilian areas. In Ahmedpur East, Bahawalpur, 13 people, including two three-year-old girls, seven women, and four men, lost their lives. Another 37 people sustained injuries—nine women and 28 men.

In Bilal Mosque near Muzaffarabad, Indian airstrikes killed three civilians and injured two children. In Kotli, a strike on Abbas Mosque martyred a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy, while a woman and her daughter suffered injuries. Although no casualties occurred in Sialkot or Shakargarh, a dispensary in Shakargarh was slightly damaged.

DG ISPR reported that Indian forces also opened fire along the Line of Control, killing five civilians, including a five-year-old.

In response, the Pakistan Air Force downed five Indian fighter jets—including three Rafales, one MiG-29, one SU-series aircraft—and an Israeli Heron drone in Bhatinda, Jammu, Akhnoor, Srinagar, and Avantipur. Pakistani forces acted only after the Indian aircraft violated Pakistani airspace.

Lt. Gen Chaudhry emphasized Pakistan’s “measured and defensive” response, adding that no Pakistani aircraft entered Indian territory.

He condemned India’s attack on Nauseri Dam, part of the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project, calling it a dangerous escalation that violated international humanitarian law.

He also highlighted the risk to 57 international flights flying through Pakistani airspace during the strikes, calling the operation reckless.

“Pakistan reserves the right to respond at a time and place of its choosing,” he concluded.