World on the brink as Pakistan 'kills 40-50 Indian soldiers' in bloody fighting

information minister has claimed that its soldiers have killed 40-50 by destroying military installations on the border in Kashmir. "We have blown their [Indian] military installations on the de facto border," Attuallah Tarar said.

Speaking on The World, Tarar labelled India as the "aggressor" and vowed to respond to Indian attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. launched the attacks as part of "Operation Sindoor" as part of a plan to hold those responsible for a terrorist attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22. If true, the deaths of as many as 50 Indian soldiers would represent a significant escalation in the latest conflict between the two nuclear armed powers.

Tensions between the two countries have run high since the partition of India at the end of British colonial rule on the sub-continent.

Over the decades, there have been several limited conflicts between the two but the most recent violence represents the most serious altercation in two decades.

The launching of "", named after the powder Indian women apply to their forehead to signify marriage, came following a devastating terrorist attack by Pakistani militants which killed 26 Hindu tourists.

are believed to have killed around 100 militants according to India's defence minister Rajnath Singh.

Pakistan, which has close links to China due to Beijing's infrastructure as part of the belt and road initiative, claimed that Chinese J-10C jets were used to shoot down five Indian fighter jets along the border, claims that have yet to be verified or confirmed by Delhi.

In response, China's foreign ministry said that it was "not familiar with the matter".

Overnight, India fired several Israeli-made Harop drones at Pakistan according to army spokesman Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif.

He added that Pakistani forces had shot down 25 drones as he confirmed that a civilian was killed and another wounded when debris from a downed drone fell in the province of Sindh.

One drone damaged a military site near the city of Lahore and wounded four soldiers, and another fell in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital, according to Lt Gen Sharif.

"The armed forces are neutralising them as we speak," he said on the state-run Pakistan Television early Thursday afternoon.

The Harop drone, produced by Israel's IAI, is one of several in India's inventory, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance report.

According to IAI, the Harop combines the capabilities of a drone and a missile and can operate at long ranges.

India's Foreign Ministry said that 13 civilians were killed and 59 wounded the previous day during exchanges of fire across the de facto border. An Indian soldier was also killed by shelling on Wednesday, according to the Indian army.

Pakistani officials said six people have been killed near the highly militarised frontier in exchanges of fire over the past day.