India, Pakistan remain on high alert after cross-border tensions

Cities bordering India and Pakistan remained on high alert a day after India carried out strikes at multiple locations on its neighbour and Islamabad shot down 5 Indian jets.

On Thursday, Pakistan said it shot down 25 drones from India in its airspace while India said it "neutralised" Pakistan's attempts to strike military targets with drones and missiles.

The latest exchanges come two weeks after India accused Pakistan of involvement in an attack in Indian Kashmir in which 26 tourists were killed.

Islamabad had denied the accusation and vowed to retaliate to the missile strikes, also saying it shot down five Indian aircraft. 

Pakistan also increased the intensity of its firing across the ceasefire line, the de facto border, in Kashmir.

Pakistan says at least 31 of its civilians were killed and about 50 wounded in Wednesday's strikes and in cross-border shelling across the frontier in Kashmir that followed, while India says 13 of its civilians died and 59 were wounded.

On Thursday, Indian government ministers told a meeting of political parties in New Delhi that the strikes on Pakistan had killed over 100 terrorists and that the count was still ongoing, government sources said.

Blackout drills were conducted in India's border regions on Wednesday night.

Pakistan's aviation authority "temporarily suspended" flight operations at airports in Lahore, Karachi, and the northeastern city of Sialkot until noon (0700 GMT). It did not give a reason for the suspension.

Although Pakistan's federal government has pledged to respond to India's strikes, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told The New York Times on Wednesday that Pakistan was ready to de-escalate.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said New Delhi did not intend to escalate the situation. "However, if there are military attacks on us, there should be no doubt that it will be met with a very, very firm response," he said at a India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting.

The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence in 1947, and the countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.