Punjab Schools Shut, Blackouts Enforced Amid Ceasefire After India-Pakistan Drone Strikes

Updated on 2025-05-13T12:27:03+05:30

Punjab Schools Shut, Blackouts Enforced Amid Ceasefire After India-Pakistan Drone Strikes

Punjab Schools Shut, Blackouts Enforced Amid Ceasefire After India-Pakistan Drone Strikes

Schools in five of Punjab’s border districts remained closed on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, while precautionary blackouts were enforced in parts of Amritsar and Hoshiarpur’s Dasuya and Mukerian areas the previous night, according to officials. Colleges and universities in Pathankot and Amritsar also suspended in-person classes, although Amritsar authorities allowed higher education institutions to conduct classes online.

Schools remained shut in Amritsar, Pathankot, Fazilka, Ferozepur, and Tarn Taran. However, educational institutions in Gurdaspur—Punjab’s sixth border district—as well as in Sangrur and Barnala, reopened on Tuesday.

By Tuesday morning, the Amritsar district administration announced that residents could return to normal activities. Electricity, which had been cut off in Amritsar as part of the blackout protocol, was restored at 11:42 p.m. on Monday, May 12.

Amid these precautions, an Amritsar-bound IndiGo flight was forced to return to Delhi on Monday evening after the district’s airport was closed due to the blackout.

Separately, drone activity was reported in the Jalandhar region on Monday evening, prompting a temporary power shutdown in select areas. Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal stated that armed forces neutralized a suspected surveillance drone near Mand village. He urged residents in a 10:45 p.m. message to alert authorities if they came across any drone debris and to avoid approaching such objects.

Punjab shares a 553-kilometre border with Pakistan. On Monday, May 12, signs of normal life returned to many border areas, with bustling markets despite continued school closures in certain districts. The measures followed a ceasefire agreement reached between India and Pakistan on Saturday, May 10, after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile exchanges.