NEW DELHI – India said Tuesday it had launched air strikes against militantcamps in Pakistan’s territory, triggering international concern over adangerous escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistan denied India’s claim that the attack had inflicted major damageand casualties on militants responsible for a suicide attack in Kashmirearlier this month as “reckless and fictitious”, and said it would respondin due course.
The purported attack would be India’s first use of air strikes againstPakistan since 1971, when the two went to war over Bangladesh’sindependence.
The incursion across the ceasefire line that divides Kashmir came afterIndia threatened retaliation over the February 14 suicide bombing, claimedby the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group, that killed 40 Indiantroops.
The escalation has triggered international alarm, with China and theEuropean Union calling for both sides to show restraint.[image: Indian Kashmir] linkIndian KashmirAFP, AFP
New Delhi said its jets had hit a JeM training camp and killed “a verylarge number” of militants training to stage suicide attacks in India.
“In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutelynecessary,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.
Pakistan said it scrambled its fighters to push back the intruders,condemning the “uncalled-for aggression” and denying a militant camp wastargeted.
Foreign Minister Shah Memhmood Qureshi said his country would “respond atthe time and place of its choosing”.
Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter thatthe Indian jets had crossed the Line of Control that divides Indian- andPakistani-administered Kashmir and that they had merely released a “payloadin haste while escaping” near Balakot.
He did not say what was meant by a “payload”.
India’s foreign ministry also said the camp was at Balakot, but gave nofurther detail and the exact location remained unclear.
– Residents report blasts –
Balakot is in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, a fewkilometres outside of the portion of Kashmir it controls.
A strike inside undisputed Pakistani territory would be a seriousheightening of the rivalry that has existed since India and Pakistandivided after independence from Britain in 1947.[image: Indians took to the streets in support of the Indian Air Force(IAF) after it claimed to have hit a …]linkIndians took to the streets in support of the Indian Air Force (IAF) afterit claimed to have hit a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camp inside PakistanSAM PANTHAKY, AFP
Residents in Balakot described hearing at least four explosions overnight,but said the damage had been minimal.
“There is one house near the place whose wall has collapsed, and one persongot minor injuries,” said 25-year-old Zubari Afzal.
The Pakistani military escorted journalists to the site where it said thepayload had been dropped.
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An AFP reporter could see a crater roughly six feet deep and equally wide,and two trees that had been snapped in half, but the only nearby buildingswere three mud houses, one with a collapsed wall.
– ‘Bleed with 1,000 cuts’ –
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Imran Khanboth summoned emergency meetings of top ministers after the attack.
Khan also convened a meeting for Wednesday of the National CommandAuthority, which oversees command and control of the country’s nucleararsenal, the military said.
Modi, who is expected to call an election in April, had threatened a”jaw-breaking” response to the February 14 attack.[image: Pakistani protesters burn an Indian national flag during a protestin Peshawar following the incursi…]linkPakistani protesters burn an Indian national flag during a protest inPeshawar following the incursion by Indian military jets into PakistanABDUL MAJEED, AFP
But at a rally in Rajasthan on Tuesday, the Indian leader did not directlymention the strike. He paid tribute to the military and said: “I assure thenation that the country is in safe hands.”
Other top Indian officials said the strike displayed the country’sdetermination to act against Pakistan — which New Delhi accuses of usingmilitants as proxies against it.
“They say they want India to bleed with a 1,000 cuts. We say that each timeyou attack us, be certain we will get back at you, harder and stronger,”said foreign affairs minister of state, Vijay Kumar Singh, a former head ofthe Indian army.
While India has consistently accused its neighbour of supporting extremistgroups, Pakistan has equally vehemently denied any role in attacks in Indiaand its only Muslim-majority state, Kashmir.
This is the biggest crisis between the neighbours since 2016, whenPakistan-based militants attacked an Indian army camp in Kashmir, killing19 soldiers.
In response, India launched what it called “surgical strikes” in PakistanKashmir. Pakistan denied the strikes ever took place.
Pakistani military analyst Hasan Askari called the latest events”dangerous”.
“If such actions continue, it can escalate into major conflict, which willnot serve any purpose but to plunge the region into serious crisis,” hesaid.[image: India has consistently accused its neighbour of supportingextremist groups while Pakistan has equal…]linkIndia has consistently accused its neighbour of supporting extremist groupswhile Pakistan has equally vehemently denied any role in attacks in Indiaand its only Muslim-majority state, KashmirSajjad HUSSAIN, AFP
However, Samir Saran, president of the Observer Research Foundation thinktank in New Delhi said the fact that India remained vague over the exactspot it had targeted was a sign that New Delhi did not want an all-outconflict.
“This is to take the pressure off Pakistanis. We are still telling themthat we don’t want an escalation. Which is why we have said that we havetaken a preemptive measure. You don’t have to make this into a war.
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