Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
clear sky
weather
OMAN
25°C / 25°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

India and Pakistan say they shot down each other’s warplanes

1145368
1145368
minus
plus

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan said on Wednesday they had shot down each other’s warplanes, in a dramatically escalating confrontation that has fuelled concerns of an all-out conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals. Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj sought to ease the situation by downplaying Tuesday’s strike, repeating Indian claims that it had been a pre-emptive attack on JeM.


“India does not wish to see further escalation of this situation,” Sushma Swaraj said during a visit to China.


The US, along with China, Britain, Germany and the European Union, have called for cooler heads to prevail.


“We encourage India and Pakistan to ... avoid escalation at any cost,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.


China on Wednesday again urged the two sides to “exercise restraint”. Britain said it was “deeply concerned” and working with partners including the UN Security Council to defuse tensions.


Calling for talks with India to defuse the situation, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned of the potentially catastrophic consequences should “better sense” not prevail.


“Can we afford any miscalculation with the kind of weapons that we have and you have?” he said in a televised statement.


While both sides have sought to play down the threat of war.


Pakistan initially said it downed two Indian jets in its airspace and captured two pilots, but later its military spokesman tweeted that there was “only one pilot” in Pakistani custody.


India’s foreign ministry demanded the “immediate and safe return” of the pilot, calling on Pakistan to ensure no harm comes to him.


The pilot “gives Islamabad a key bargaining chip that may affect just how muscular Delhi’s next move could be,” tweeted US analyst Michael Kugelman.


New Delhi also confirmed the loss of one of its planes and said it had shot down a Pakistani fighter jet.


In a sign of the deepening crisis, Pakistan closed its airspace “until further notice”. At least six airports were shuttered in India, and a vast area north of New Delhi was closed to civilian flights.


“We do not want to go towards war,” Pakistan’s military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told a press conference.


Ghafoor said the jets had been shot down after Pakistani planes earlier flew across the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, to the Indian side in a show of strength, hitting non-military targets including supply depots.


Afterwards, he said, the two Indian planes crossed the LoC into Pakistani airspace. One fell into Pakistani-held Kashmir, while the second crashed on the other side, he said.


He denied initial reports that a Pakistan plane had been shot down, saying accounts an F-16 had been lost were incorrect.


Later, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Rajeesh Kumar said a Pakistani jet was hit as it took part in an operation “to target military installations on the Indian side”.


He said the Indian plane flown by the captured pilot — a Mig-21 — was lost in that operation.


Pakistan state media published a video purportedly showing the captured pilot being interrogated.


It shows a blindfolded man in an Indian Air Force uniform, his face bloodied, with his hands tied behind him, giving his name, rank and serial number as a soldier interrogates him.


The military later released a second video showing the man without a blindfold and drinking a cup of tea.


The incidents are the latest in a dangerous sequence of events between the two countries, whose ties have been under intense strain since the February 14 suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed 40 troops.


New Delhi had promised to act, and on Tuesday its warplanes flew into Pakistani airspace and struck what it said was a camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the militant group that claimed the Kashmir bombing. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon