India-Pakistan news: Troops exchange gunfire along contested border after air strikes escalate tensions
New Delhi insists 'very large number' of militants dead after raid, while Islamabad says it caused no deaths
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Indian and Pakistani troops have exchanged gunfire over several sections of their contested border after disputed claims about an airstrike in a Pakistan-controlled sector of Kashmir.
New Delhi said its warplanes had killed “a very large number” of fighters when they struck a militant training camp on Tuesday morning, but Islamabad said the airstrike caused no deaths.
The overnight raid was the latest escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals since a deadly militant attack in the disputed Kashmir region earlier this month killed more than 40 Indian soldiers.
Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack but has vowed to respond to any Indian military operation against it.
The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility. The bomber, who made a video before the attack, was a resident of Indian Kashmir.
Fire on the streets as Indians react to the Pulwama bombing attack
Show all 13Pakistan’s military spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said the Indian “aircrafts” crossed into the Muzafarabad sector of Kashmir, which is split between the two countries but claimed by each in its entirety.
He said Pakistan scrambled fighters and the Indian jets “released payload in haste” near Balakot, on the edge of Pakistani-ruled Kashmir.
In a tweet, Pakistan’s governing Tehreek-e-Insaf party said: ”We realise it’s election year, and a desperation across the border. Fact of the matter is, Indian jets were forced to retreat in haste by Pakistan army patrols and dumped fuel, which in their scramble they thought was a bomb.”
India’s foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale, told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday that Indian fighter aircraft targeted Jaish-e-Mohammad camps in a pre-emptive strike after intelligence indicated another attack was being planned.
“Acting on intelligence, India early today struck the biggest training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot,” he said. “In this operation a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and Jehadis being trained were eliminated.”
Balakot police chief Saghir Hussain Shah told The Associated Press he had sent teams to the area where the Indian bombs reportedly hit, which he described as a mostly deserted wooded area.
“There are no casualties, there are no damages on the ground because of the dropping of the bombs,” he said.
The 14 February attack in Indian-ruled Kashmir was the worst attack on Indian forces since the start of the 1989 insurgency in Kashmir and came as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is in the middle of a re-election campaign.
Insurgents have been demanding either outright independence or union with Pakistan. India routinely accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants who cross the mountainous Himalayan region. In the last year an increasingly bloody crackdown on insurgents in Indian-ruled Kashmir has escalated tensions in the troubled region.
Kashmir has been the cause of two previous wars between the uneasy neighbours. They fought a third war in 1979 over East Pakistan, which gained its independence with the help of India and became Bangladesh.
Pakistan has outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed and seized its properties in south Punjab’s Bawahalpur area, including religious schools and mosques. India has demanded Jaish-e-Mohammad’s leader, Azhar Masood, be listed as a terrorist by the United Nations, but has been stymied by China.
Additional reporting by agencies
The European Union has urged "maximum restraint" between Pakistan and India, according to AFP.
Australia's government has issued a statement calling for "restraint" from both sides:
"The Australian government is concerned about relations between India and Pakistan following the horrific terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February, which Australia has condemned.
"India’s Foreign Secretary has stated that India has now conducted operations targeting terrorist groups based in Pakistan.
"Pakistan must take urgent and meaningful action against terrorist groups in its territory, including Jaish-e-Mohammed which has claimed responsibility for the 14 February bombing, and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
"Pakistan must do everything possible to implement its own proscription of Jaish-e-Mohammed. It can no longer allow extremist groups the legal and physical space to operate from its territory.
"These steps would make a substantial contribution to easing tensions and resolving the underlying causes of conflict.
"Australia urges both sides to exercise restraint, avoid any action which would endanger peace and security in the region and engage in dialogue to ensure that these issues are resolved peacefully."
Imran Khan has denounced Indian statements that its fighter jets hit a militant camp in the Pakistani town of Balakot as "fictitious".
Mr Khan's remark came after a meeting of the country's National Security Committee on Tuesday, hours after Pakistan said Indian aircraft dropped bombs on a deserted wooded area causing no casualties.
India, however, said it killed a "very large number" of militants.
Mr Khan said that "once again, the Indian government has resorted to a self- serving, reckless and fictitious claim" and added that the statements from India were "for domestic consumption" in the run-up to elections.
He said India risks "putting regional peace and stability at grave risk" and summoned a meeting of the Parliament for Wednesday.
According to the statement, Mr Khan said: "India has committed uncalled for aggression to which Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing."
There are unconfirmed reports by Indian media of a "ceasefire violation" by Pakistani troops in Jammu and Kashmir, followed by "retaliation" by Indian forces.
Indians took to the streets in celebration across the country on Tuesday after the government said it carried out air strikes inside Pakistan killing hundreds of militants in a training camp.
The reaction may be a sign that support for prime minister Narendra Modi is surging months before a general election, pollsters said.
Patriotism may be having a greater influence than concerns about low farm incomes and weak jobs growth.
India said air force jets hit a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the militant group that claimed credit for a 14 February suicide bombing attack that killed Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir, a mountainous region also claimed by neighbouring Pakistan.
"A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists" were killed, Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.
Pakistan said there had been no casualties at all.
While the results of the strikes in the early hours of Tuesday were disputed, that didn't stop many in India from believing their government's version of events.
India's opposition leaders, many of whom have banded together against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), congratulated the Indian Air Force (IAF), though they stopped short of praising Narendra Modi.
"I salute the pilots of the IAF," Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's main opposition Congress, said in a tweet.
In a village 100 metres from the Line of Control (LoC) that acts as the de facto border with Pakistan, men gathered around a bunker for security forces that is under construction and shouted slogans hailing India.
"We will celebrate tonight," one said, "We have lost so many of our villagers to Pakistani firing."
As fears grow the conflict could escalate, hospitals in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were ordered to set a quarter of beds aside for "a national cause", officials have said.
"We put all hospitals in the province on high alert due to the present situation on the border with India and issued directives to all heads of the hospitals to be prepared for any sort of emergency," provincial secretary health Dr Farooq Jameel told Reuters.
Pakistan has said it would respond at a time and place of its choice - with a military spokesman even alluding to its nuclear arsenal, highlighting the escalation in hostile rhetoric from both two sides since a suicide bombing in Kashmir this month.
The spokesman said a command and control authority meeting, which decides over the use of nuclear weapons, had been convened for Wednesday, adding: "You all know what that means."
Several reporters trudged up the Kangaran Nallah hill to the site of the bombing near the town of Balakot, close to the border with Pakistan's sector of Kashmir.
They reported seeing several large craters, a few upended trees and villagers wondering why they had been targeted.
"There are only mud-brick homes here. There is no madrassas. There isn't even a concrete house," said 55-year-old Noor Shah who lived about a half-kilometer (a third of a mile) from the site.
When the bombs struck, he said residents of his village of Jabba stayed indoors. It wasn't until morning when "we saw soldiers and learned from them that Indian planes dropped bombs in our village," he added.
Two of the dried mud structures were damaged in the explosions but no one was hurt, said Tahir Khan, 45, of the same village. He added that his frightened children refused to let him leave their side to go to work.
"No one has been killed, no one has been seriously hurt. But we want to know, what have we done that we were attacked?" asked Mr Khan.
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