Pakistani drones attacked Pathankot in a swarm for the second consecutive night Friday, leading to intense counter engagement by the Indian Army and Indian Air Force air defence units.
The attack, which began around 8.45 pm, lasted close to half an hour during which multiple loud explosions were heard and anti-aircraft firing was observed in the night sky. A blackout had been imposed across the city at 7 pm by the district administration.
The Army said that around the time Pathankot came under attack, similar drone attacks were underway in Samba and Jammu.
There was little vehicular movement on the roads as the explosions grew louder — cars and trucks moved with their headlights switched off. Some residents were standing atop rooftops, observing the firefight. Gradually, the firing and explosions abated and an uneasy calm descended as people for a long night ahead.
An important garrison town of Punjab and a key forward air base of the IAF, Pathankot came under intense drone attack Thursday night, which residents said continued until the wee hours of Friday.
Yet the mood of the local populace is upbeat. People have followed the instructions of the district administration to shut down business establishments and to stay off the roads by 7 pm. The roads are almost deserted by 7.30 pm — the last customers are sent away as shutters are downed and lights switched off.
“Take your order and scoot,” says Kewal to a customer at a dhaba near the Air Force Station. “The last Pakistani drone came around 4 am today. They (Pakistanis) have been bragging on social media that this was just a trailer and that the picture would follow. Well, we are ready for them,” he said.
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On the roads of the town, which is dotted with military establishments, and where walls are painted with patriotic slogans, police jeeps have been on patrol and checkpoints have come up for the night. The policemen are armed with submachine guns.
“Better to be prepared after what happened last night. No point in laxity when we know what Pakistan is up to. Yesterday, when it all started, the shops were still open and people were going about. So today, we have asked them to wrap up by 7pm,” Jasvir Dass, Assistant Sub Inspector on patrol duty, said.
Across Pathankot, groups of young people were spotted staring at the sky, trying to spot drones with their mobile phone cameras on zoom mode. “There are two of them up there,” one person said. The other corrected him, saying it was a star, not a drone.
The blackout was near total. Some hotels had turned out customers staying there and were refusing new bookings. “We are taking precautions since any loss of life or limb while staying in our hotel will be a cause of liability for us,” said the front office manager of a hotel.
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“Kayi saal nikal jaande rishte banan nu te todan nu ik minute lagda (it takes years to build relations and just a minute to break them),” said Makan Singh from Dhariwal, a town in neighbouring Gurdaspur district on the Indo-Pak conflict. He had come to Pathankot to sell farm produce but was unable to do so due to the 7pm shutdown.
Bhajan Lal from Panipat, who drives a tipper truck being used in a construction project in Baramulla in J&K, has been stuck in Pathankot since Thursday. “Mahaul kharaab hota ja raha hai (conditions are getting worse),” he said.