The British Council has canceled all the afternoon exams scheduled in Lahore on Thursday, citing higher safety risks amid increasing tensions between India and Pakistan.
The decision affects the evaluations of GCE, IGCSE, IELTS and the University of London in the places of the city during the PM session.
In a statement published on social networks, the British Council said that the measure was carried out in coordination with the exam boards to “prioritize the safety of the candidates.”
Students have been urged to keep their schools to obtain more updates, while private candidates are advised to communicate with the British Council customer service center.
The organization did not confirm whether the exams would be reprogrammed, but noted that all official updates would be provided through their verified channels.
Lahore, among other cities, has placed under high safety alerts, with intermittent flight suspensions also reported.
Previously, Punjab Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz declared an emergency state throughout the province. She directed all security institutions, including the Police, remaining on a maximum alert.
The prime minister canceled the leaves of the doctors and other medical staff of all hospitals in Punjab and ordered all employees to resume their functions immediately.
He also ordered the district administrations through Punjab to remain on a maximum alert.
Latest tensions between Pakistan and India
The last climbing in the tensions between India and Pakistan follows the attack of April 22 in Pahalgam, India illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (Iiojk), which resulted in 26 deaths. India immediately accused the elements based on Pakistan to orchestrate the attack, although no evidence was provided. Islamabad has strongly rejected these accusations.
In retaliation, India closed the Wagah Earth border on April 23, suspended the Indo Water Treaty and revoked the Pakistani visas. Pakistan responded labeling any interruption of water flow as an “act of war” and closed the Wagah crossing on his side.
The situation intensified even more on Wednesday, as the reports of several cities in Pakistan, including Muzaffrabad, Kotli, Mueridke and Bahawalpur, detailed multiple explosions. Pakistan’s military spokesman, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, confirmed that Indian air attacks had addressed multiple locations within Pakistan. In response, Pakistan released Swift Air and Ground Operations.
In the first hour of retaliation, Pakistan announced the fall of five Indian combat planes, including four Rafale aircraft, which India had recently acquired from France to strengthen its aerial defenses after the failed Balakot operation in 2019.
“Pakistan could have demolished 10 Indian combat planes,” said Lieutenant General Chaudhry during a press conference. “But Pakistan chose to exercise restriction.”
Despite the scale of the response, the Indian media remained silently on the losses. The Hindu, a prominent Indian newspaper, initially reported that three Indian planes had been demolished, but then eliminated the article, probably under the pressure of the Indian government to avoid more shame.
An American commentator about CNN declared that the potential loss of Rafale’s aircraft severely damaged the claim of India of aerial superiority, which had built around the induction of these advanced French combat planes. Some experts speculated that the confrontation served as a test of Chinese and Western military technologies, particularly after Pakistan acquired J-10c aircraft from China in response to the Indian rafale fleet.
A senior French intelligence official confirmed to CNN that a Rafale plane had been shot down by Pakistan, marking the first time that this sophisticated French plane had been lost in combat.
In another development, Pakistan’s armed forces confirmed the neutralization of 25 Israeli manufacturing Harop drones used by India in recent cross -border activity.
A statement issued by Public Relations between Pakistan Services (ISPR) confirmed on Thursday that these drones were demolished using both electronic countermeasures (soft slaughter techniques) and conventional armament (hard slaughter systems) after they were detected flying over multiple areas throughout Pakistan.
The ISPR described the drone raids as a “desperate and panic response” of India, which occurred after Pakistan retaliation operations on May 6 and 7, in which five Indian combat planes fell and several military positions fell.
