India and Pakistan blame each other of drone attacks

India and Pakistan have accused each other of launching drone attacks as conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours continue to intensify.

Indian Army said Pakistan's armed forces launched "multiple attacks" using drones and other munitions along India's entire western border on Thursday night and early Friday.

It comes after India struck multiple locations in Pakistan on Wednesday in retaliation for a deadly attack in Kashmir last month, in which it said Islamabad was involved.

Pakistan denied the accusation but both countries have exchanged cross-border firing and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other's airspace since then, with nearly four dozen people dying in the violence.

The Indian army said on Friday that Pakistani troops had resorted to "numerous cease fire violations" along the countries' de-facto border in Kashmir, a region that is divided between them but claimed in full by both.

Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the Indian army statement was "baseless and misleading", and that Pakistan had not undertaken any "offensive actions" targeting areas within Indian Kashmir or beyond the country's border.

In Pakistani Kashmir, officials said heavy shelling from across the border killed five civilians, including an infant, and injured 29 in the early hours of Friday.

Sirens blared for more than two hours on Friday in India's border city of Amritsar, and residents were asked to remain indoors.

Hotels reported a sharp fall in occupancy as tourists fled the city by road since the airport was closed.

India's Directorate General of Shipping directed all ports, terminals and shipyards to increase security, amid "growing concerns regarding potential threats".

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament that Islamabad is "speaking daily" to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and China about de-escalating the crisis.