Lahore. Pakistan’s air defense system shot down an Indian drone early Thursday in the eastern city of Lahore, officials said, as India evacuated thousands of people from villages near the two countries’ heavily militarized frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir.

The incident came a day after Indian missile strikes on targets in Pakistan killed 31 civilians, including women and children, according to Pakistani officials.

Tensions have escalated sharply between the nuclear-armed neighbors since April 22, when gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India has accused Pakistan of backing the militants responsible for the attack, a claim Islamabad has denied.

Local police official Mohammad Rizwan said the drone was downed near Walton Airport, a civilian airfield in a residential part of Lahore that also houses military installations, about 25 kilometers from the Indian border.

Local media reported that two additional drones were shot down in other cities across Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.

Two security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said the downed aircraft was a small Indian drone. It was not immediately clear whether the drone was armed.

The incident could not be independently verified. Indian officials did not immediately comment.

In a separate incident in Punjab’s Chakwal district, a drone crashed into farmland. No casualties were reported. District police chief Ghulam Mohiuddin did not identify the drone’s origin, but said authorities had secured the wreckage and were investigating.

India said its Wednesday strikes targeted at least nine sites inside Pakistan allegedly linked to the planning of terrorist attacks against Indian targets. Several of those sites were in Punjab province, where most of the casualties occurred.

In an overnight address, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to avenge the killings, though he did not offer details, raising fears of a broader confrontation between the longtime rivals.

Across the Line of Control in Indian-controlled Kashmir, tens of thousands of people spent the night in shelters, officials and residents said Thursday.

Indian authorities evacuated civilians from dozens of villages along the de facto border overnight, while others in towns like Uri and Poonch left their homes voluntarily, according to three police and civil officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.

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