Explosions were reported from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and a blackout was ordered across the city and others near the border with Pakistan Thursday night, as Pak forces launched a barrage of missiles and drones at military targets in the state and in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir.
Local officials told news agency PTI 'a massive sound' was heard. A brief silence followed.
The explosions then continued for about an hour.
Late Thursday air raid sirens sounded across cities in Punjab and Rajasthan, and in Jammu and Kashmir, and complete blackouts were ordered to protect civilian and military infrastructure.
Eight Pak missiles were fired at targets in J&K alone; all were intercepted by air defence units.
Pathankot in Punjab, which is just 30km from the Pak border and serves as the access point to the union territory, is under blackout, as is Chandigarh, which is less than 250km from Delhi.
Visuals shared online by residents in these areas showing terrifying scenes - Pak missiles streaking across the night sky and exploding as they are hit by Indian countermeasures.
Sources said at least one Pak fighter jet - a supersonic F-16 - had been shot down.
The fresh wave of attempted attacks by Pak follow a barrage of missiles fired late Wednesday and early Thursday targeting military installations in 15 cities, including Jalandhar, Srinagar, Amritsar, and Ludhiana. India air defence systems - the Russian-made S-400 - shot these down.
India's Israeli-made HARPY drones then took out Pak air defence systems in Lahore and other places, leaving then vulnerable to a possible counterattack.
This attempted military action against India comes a day after Indian armed forces' carried out precision strikes at four terrorist camps in Pak and five in Pak-occupied Kashmir, or PoK.
Operation Sindoor, as the strikes were codenamed, spanned a 25-minute period that began Wednesday morning at 1.05 am and included a barrage of 24 munitions - from HAMMER smart bombs to SCALP missiles - that destroyed terrorist groups' HQs and training camps.
Over 100 terrorists were killed in the strikes, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said.
Op Sindoor was in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
Four terrorists from The Resistance Front, a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy, killed 26 people, many of whom were civilians, at the Baisaran Valley, a tourist hotspot less than 70 km from Srinagar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had vowed vengeance against those responsible.
