PTI, May 09, 2025, Chandigarh/Jaisalmer : Schools remained shut, and so did most businesses, as people in the border districts woke up to a tense Friday morning, hung heavy with the wail of air raid sirens and foreboding of what the day would bring.
The night that was had been nerve-wracking with blackouts, loud blasts piercing through the quiet and the fear that their homes would be the frontier of war between India and its fractious neighbour Pakistan. To their relief, it passed off without any bloodshed or loss.
While Punjab shares a 532-km border with Pakistan, in Rajasthan, the border stretches about 1,070 km.
People in several border districts of Punjab, including Amritsar, Pathankot, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur, spent an anxious night as authorities enforced a complete blackout amid the heightened tensions.
In Pathankot, where some locals claimed they heard explosion-like sounds on Thursday night, was calm in the morning.
Some locals said that though they were anxious, they were confident as India’s armed forces were swiftly thwarting Pakistan’s attempts.
Pawan Kumar, a resident of Amritsar, said, “While we spent an anxious night, things were back to routine during the day.”
Pathankot resident Jarnail Singh lauded the government for foiling Pakistan’s attempt to hit areas in the border district on Thursday night.
A few residents in Ferozepur told PTI Videos that they were more apprehensive of the rumours making the rounds.
In Bathinda, a local told PTI Videos, “Gunshots kept up till midnight as we sat home in a complete blackout. We spent the night in fear, but things were calm in the morning.”
A test air raid siren set off as part of a drill in central Delhi’s ITO jolted many out of their afternoon torpor.
“Around 3 pm, we heard a loud sound, which gradually became feeble. Although since yesterday I have been seeing videos of sirens being blared in places where attacks happened, hearing it for real was a first-time experience,” Namantullah, 21, who has a shop near the building, said.
“My grandfather used to tell me about the Kargil War or the 1971 Indo-Pak war. We could not grasp the ominousness of it because we weren’t there. These sirens, though only a test, made it all too real,” he added.
The discovery of a “bomb-like” piece of iron in Kariyal village of Gangth Panchayat in Himachal Pradesh bore testimony to Pakistan’s airspace incursion.
According to villagers, the around-8-inch piece of the metal made a 10-inch crater in the middle of a paved road.
“A burning rocket-like object came from the sky and fell on the road with a loud sound. When we went to check the spot, we found a crater,” an eyewitness said.
Prayers for peace were held in some gurdwaras in Punjab’s Mohali and Rupnagar.
Baldev Chand, an elderly man in Chandigarh who stuck to his routine morning walk on Friday, said while there were some anxious moments the previous night, there was nothing to worry given the way the Indian armed forces thwarted Pakistan’s attempts.
The UT administration later sounded a fresh air raid siren, appealing to people to remain indoors.
“An air warning has been received from the air force station of a possible attack. Sirens are being sounded. All are advised to remain indoors and stay away from balconies,” an official statement said.
About an hour later, the administration said the siren for the alert was over.
Sirens were blared in Haryana’s Panchkula and Ambala for a brief while, appealing to people to stay indoors.
The district administration in Patiala issued an advisory, urging people to stay indoors and remain calm.
People in Rajasthan’s border districts also recounted a night of fear and uncertainty amid sounds of loud explosions and a complete blackout.
“While we couldn’t see anything, we heard loud sounds that were scary,” said a resident of Jaisalmer, bordering Pakistan.
Another resident said, “After the blackout, we could not realise what was happening. Later, we found out that it was an attack by Pakistan that our armed forces thwarted.”
Amid the escalating tensions, the authorities extended the blackout in Jaisalmer till 6 am on Friday, though the region remained largely calm in the morning.
Jaisalmer and Barmer have directed drone operators to deposit their equipment at the nearest police station. The sale and bursting of crackers have been banned in these two districts.
Fairs, rallies and public functions have been banned in Jaisalmer. Markets have been told to down their shutters by 5 pm.
Meanwhile, a bomb-like object was found in the Kishanghat area of Jaisalmer district on Friday morning, prompting action by the local police and air force.
According to police, the object was found near a nursery in front of Kishanghat.
“It is currently not known if it is live or destroyed,” Kotwali SHO Prem Daan said, adding that experts from the army were on their way to “defuse” it.
In Himachal Pradesh, the district administration in Bilaspur, which shares the border with Punjab, issued a safety advisory, appealing to the residents to ensure a complete blackout.
On Thursday night, India thwarted Pakistan’s fresh attempts to strike military sites with drones and missiles, after foiling its attempts to target military installations in 15 cities in the northern and western parts of the country.
The renewed attempts by the Pakistani forces came after the Indian armed forces on Wednesday carried out precise missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan under Operation Sindoor in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
