India warns Pakistan military attacks will get 'very firm response'

India warned Thursday any Pakistan military action would be met with "a very, very firm response", a day after New Delhi launched missile strikes in retaliation for an attack it blames on Islamabad.

"Our response was targeted and measured. It (is) not our intention to escalate the situation," Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a speech to his visiting Iranian counterpart.

"However, if there are military attacks on us, there should be no doubt that it will be met with a very, very firm response."

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, with days of gunfire along their border in Kashmir escalating into artillery shelling.

At least 45 deaths have been reported from both sides of the border following Wednesday's violence, including children.

Jaishankar met Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is visiting New Delhi days after visiting Pakistan, as Tehran seeks to mediate between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Araghchi, in a statement on his arrival in India, said that it was "natural that we want to reduce tensions" between India and Pakistan.

"We hope that the parties will exercise restraint to avoid an escalation of tensions in the region," Araghchi said.

Meanwhile, the Indian defense ministry said Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India on Wednesday night and early Thursday and they were "neutralized" by Indian air defense systems.

In response, Indian forces targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan on Thursday, it said in a statement, adding that the "Indian response has been in the same domain with the same intensity as Pakistan".

Indian government ministers also told a meeting of political parties in New Delhi that the strikes on Pakistan had killed over “100 terrorists” and that the count was still ongoing, government sources said.

In the Kashmir valley, the cable car in Gulmarg, a major tourist attraction, was shut due to its proximity to the border with Pakistan. A hotel manager there who did not want to be named said police had ordered the hotel vacated on Wednesday night.

Blackout drills were conducted in India's border regions on Wednesday night.

Local media reported panic buying in some cities in the Indian state of Punjab which shares a border with Pakistan, as people hoarded essentials fearing a Pakistani retaliation to the Indian strikes.