The Indian army has said that Pakistan’s armed forces launched “multiple attacks” along its western border on Thursday night and the early hours of Friday, using drones and other munitions.

The retaliatory attacks have escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, the Indian military authority said, according to Reuters.

The multiple attacks followed India’s strikes on several locations in Pakistan on Wednesday, which New Delhi described as “terrorist camps,” retaliating for a deadly attack last month on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir.

But Pakistan denied any involvement in the Kashmir attack.

Both countries have since exchanged cross-border fire, shelling, and drone incursions, with nearly four dozen people reported dead in the latest bout of violence.

The current fighting marks the deadliest confrontation since the 1999 Kargil conflict.

Notably, India’s targeting of cities in Pakistan’s mainland provinces, beyond Pakistani-administered Kashmir, is the first such escalation since the full-scale war of 1971.

The Indian army reportedly accused Pakistani troops of engaging in “numerous ceasefire violations” along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

“The drone attacks were effectively repulsed and befitting reply was given to the CFVs (ceasefire violations),” the army stated, vowing that all “nefarious designs” would be countered with “force.”

However, Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar dismissed the Indian claims as “baseless and misleading.”

He insisted that Pakistan had not undertaken any “offensive actions” targeting areas within Indian Kashmir or beyond.

Islamabad previously denied attacking India’s Pathankot city in Punjab, Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley, and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, labelling the accusations “unfounded” and “politically motivated.”

India’s Border Security Force reported that a “major infiltration bid” was “foiled” in Kashmir’s Samba region on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, heavy artillery shelling continued in the Uri sector on Friday, according to a security official who declined 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.

In India’s border city of Amritsar, sirens blared for more than two hours on Friday, prompting authorities to urge residents to stay indoors.

Hotels reported a sharp decline in occupancy as tourists fled by road following the closure of the airport.

Other border areas also ramped up precautions. In Bhuj, Gujarat, authorities kept tourist buses on standby to evacuate residents near the Pakistan border.

Schools and coaching centres were closed in Rajasthan’s Bikaner region, where residents near the border were advised to relocate temporarily, either with relatives or to government-arranged shelters.

Ansab, a student at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology in Jammu, described hearing overnight blasts.

“The explosions were more violent and louder around 4 a.m. (2230 GMT Thursday),” she said.

“For two to three minutes it became very loud, windows started shaking as if they will break,” she added, noting that the air was later “smoggy,” a mix of smoke and fog.

World powers have urged restraint. U.S. Vice President JD Vance reiterated calls for calm on Thursday.

India and Pakistan have shared a bitter rivalry since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

The Kashmir region, claimed in full by both but divided between them, has been at the heart of their enmity, fueling two of the three wars they have fought.

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