ISLAMABAD - Twenty-six people, including women and children, were killed and 46 others injured when India attacked civilian settlements in six areas of Pakistan on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the Pakistani army's media wing said.

India attacked houses and mosques, targeting civilians in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and the country's east Punjab province, Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told media in a briefing.

He confirmed that the Pakistan Air Force shot down five Indian fighter jets, including three Rafales, one MiG-29, one Sukhoi, and a combat drone whose debris fell inside Indian territory. "None of the Pakistani aircraft went inside Indian airspace," he added.

The ISPR chief said several posts and a brigade headquarters of the Indian army were targeted in Pakistan's retaliatory action.

Pakistani Air Force launched the attack only after India carried out "the unprovoked, uncalled-for aggression against the territorial integrity, and the innocent people of Pakistan by firing at them through standoff weapons."

In this incident, India targeted and damaged the Nausari dam structure of the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project in Muzaffarabad district, Chaudhry said, adding "targeting hydro infrastructure is an unacceptable and dangerous escalation."

The ISPR chief said that at the time of the attack, scores of national and international flights were in Pakistan's airspace and thousands of civilian passengers' lives were put in grave danger.

Chaudhry said that Pakistan will retaliate in response to the attack which happened in "the darkness of the night," adding that last night's actions from Pakistan were only a retaliation in self-defense.

"Pakistan reserves the right and will respond to this aggression at a time, place, and means of our own choice," he noted.