The Punjab government on Thursday ordered the closure of educational institutions for three days amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.

Punjab shares a 532-km border with Pakistan.

Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains said that all schools, colleges and universities – government, private and aided – across the state will remain closed for three days “in view of the evolving situation”.

Authorities in the Union Territory of Chandigarh also declared the closure of schools till Saturday, PTI reported.

The Chandigarh administration said on Friday morning that it had received a warning from the air force station about a possible Pakistani attack.

Sirens are being sounded in the Union Territory and residents were advised to remain indoors and away from balconies, the administration said.

Later in the day, the Bathinda Police issued an advisory asking all residents, including media persons, to maintain a distance of at least 100 metres from any unidentified objects or their fragments. This came amid media reports that debris from missiles was found in several parts of Punjab.

In Haryana, educational institutions in Panchkula will remain closed till Saturday, the news agency quoted unidentified officials as saying.

The Indian Army said that the Pakistani military had launched several attacks using drones and other munitions along India’s entire western border on Thursday night. Pakistani soldiers also violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, it added in a statement on Friday morning.

The drone attacks were “effectively repulsed” and a “befitting reply” was given to the ceasefire violations, the Indian Army said.

Watch: Interview: ‘Sceptical that strikes will deter Pak terror’

On Thursday night, the Indian Army had said that Pakistan had targeted Indian military stations in Punjab’s Pathankot and Jammu and Kashmir’s Jammu and Udhampur areas along the international border using missiles and drones.

The Indian armed forces had neutralised the Pakistani threat “with kinetic and non-kinetic means” and no losses were reported, the Integrated Defence Staff headquarters had said.

A blackout was enforced in several cities in North India amid reports that Pakistani drones were attempting to attack the Jammu region.

Blackouts were imposed in Amritsar and Jalandhar in Punjab, Samba, Jammu, Baramulla and Kishtwar areas of Jammu and Kashmir, and Bikaner in Rajasthan, among other places.

Also read: Pakistan launched attacks along ‘entire western border’, was effectively repulsed: Indian Army

This came after the Indian military on Wednesday carried out strikes on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Nine sites were targeted during the strikes, which were code-named Operation Sindoor.

At least 31 persons were killed and 46 injured in Pakistan in India’s strikes, reported Al Jazeera. Islamabad claimed that the strikes killed and injured several civilians and called the operation a violation of its sovereignty.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that Operation Sindoor was carried out with “precision, alertness and humanity” to ensure that civilians were not affected. He reiterated India’s position that the action was “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.

The Pakistan Army retaliated by shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Sixteen persons were killed in the firing, according to India’s defence ministry.

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