India's military accidentally fired a missile into neighbouring Pakistan, New Delhi's defence ministry said on Friday, calling it "deeply regrettable".
Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Their shared border has a heavy military presence on both sides, and at times tensions have spiralled to the point of raising fears of an atomic exchange, AFP reports.
"In the course of a routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile" on Wednesday, India's defence ministry said.
It did not specify the type of missile, but said it landed "in an area of Pakistan".
The incident was "deeply regrettable", it said, adding that it was "a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident".
Earlier, Pakistan on Friday warned New Delhi of "unpleasant consequences" over what it said was an Indian-originated, but unidentified high-altitude supersonic object that crashed in Pakistani territory.
Pakistan foreign office said in a statement it summoned India's charge d'affaires in Islamabad on Friday to lodge a protest over what it said was the unprovoked violation of its airspace. Pakistan called for an investigation of the incident, which it said could have endangered passenger flights and civilian lives, reports Reuters.
Pakistan warned India in the statement "to be mindful of the unpleasant consequences of such negligence and take effective measures to avoid the recurrence off such violations in future."
The two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars and have engaged in numerous military clashes, most recently in 2019 which saw the air forces of the two engage in combat.
In a hurriedly called news conference late on Thursday night, Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar said, "On 9 March a high-speed flying object was picked up inside Indian territory by air defence operations centre of the Pakistan air force."
He said the military was not sure of the nature of the object, which he said crashed near the eastern Pakistani city of Mian Channu and originated from the Indian city of Sirsa, in India's western Haryana province.
Pakistan also called on India to share outcome of the investigation into the incident.
