Danger grows as India and Pakistan appear to escalate military clash

India and Pakistan appeared to be dangerously escalating their armed confrontation Thursday, as both countries said their military sites had come under attack, and heavy shelling and strikes were reported overnight on each side of their border.

The military faceoff began Wednesday, when India struck several sites in Pakistani territory — its deepest strikes inside Pakistan in decades — in retaliation for a deadly terrorist attack two weeks before.

In a sign of the international alarm that the conflict could spin out of control, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with leaders from both countries Thursday and emphasized the need for “immediate de-escalation,” according to State Department accounts of the calls.

India and Pakistan both continued to claim that they were not seeking an escalation in their military clash. But the reality on the ground indicated that the two nuclear-armed countries were not yet ready to take the off-ramps from their boiling tensions that had appeared to be taking shape a day before.

The Indian government Thursday said it had thwarted Pakistani attempts to unleash drones and missiles at Indian military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, many of them home to air force bases.

India said it had responded by striking Pakistan’s air defense systems and radars close to the city of Lahore — the kind of blow that often causes a military conflict to intensify, analysts said.

Pakistan accused India of continuing what it called illegal aggression and said its forces had shot down more than two dozen Indian drones that entered Pakistan’s airspace.

In the rapidly developing situation, the claims from both sides could not be independently verified.

Late Thursday, some parts of Jammu, an Indian city of about a half-million people that is part of the territory of Jammu and Kashmir, were under blackouts. The sounds of blasts and sirens could be heard across the city, as shells and drones flew overhead, according to eyewitness accounts.

“Residents are in panic and staying indoors,” said Raman Sharma, a civil activist and resident of Jammu.

India’s defense ministry, in a post on the social platform X, said military bases in Jammu and two other cities, Pathankot and Udhampur, which are close to India’s disputed Kashmir border with Pakistan, were “targeted by Pakistan using missiles and drones.”

Panic also spread during an evening cricket match in Dharamsala, not far from the area facing heavy shelling, where a crowd of more than 10,000 people had to be evacuated and the game called off.

India and Pakistan, separated from each other at the end of British colonial rule in 1947, have fought several wars, with the main flash point being their competing claims over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between them.

The latest escalation came after a gruesome terrorist attack on the Indian side of Kashmir last month that killed 26 civilians. India accused Pakistan of being behind the attack and vowed military action. Pakistan denied the accusations and warned that it would respond in kind if it was attacked.

After a day of violence Wednesday that opened with Indian airstrikes and Pakistani claims to have shot down aircraft — and reports of dozens of deaths in total — both India and Pakistan seemed to be open to finding a way to de-escalate.

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