Pakistan-India news: Tensions rise around Kashmir conflict as both countries claim to shoot down each other's military jets
Risk of conflict rises dramatically
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Your support makes all the difference.India has accused Pakistan of an “unprovoked act of aggression” after both countries claimed to have shot down each other’s military jets.
Islamabad captured an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a 1971 war.
Tension has been running high since a suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police earlier this month.
But the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Tuesday when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base.
New Delhi claimed at least 300 militants were killed in Tuesday’s strike, while Pakistan says no one was killed.
The White House condemned the intensifying conflict and urged “both sides to take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation”.
Pakistan’s envoy to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, said Islamabad would like to see the Trump administration play a more active role in easing the crisis. “We would certainly like to have more, and would certainly like to see more active involvement of the United States,” he told reporters.
At the same time, he said the lack of US condemnation of India’s strike on Pakistan is “construed and understood as an endorsement of the Indian position, and that is what emboldened them even more.”
Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan called for talks with India and hoped “better sense” would prevail so that both sides could de-escalate.
“History tells us that wars are full of miscalculation. My question is that, given the weapons we have, can we afford miscalculation,” Mr Khan said during a brief televised broadcast to the nation. “We should sit down and talk.”
The Pakistan government’s official Twitter account released a video of a man it claimed was an Indian pilot who had been shot down.
The man, whom Pakistan has named as Wing Commander Abhi Nandan and whose face was bloodied and blindfolded, gives his name and service number before telling a man questioning him: “I’m sorry sir, that’s all I’m supposed to tell you.”
A statement from India’s foreign ministry said the pilot’s treatment was a “vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force in violation of all norms of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention,” ordering his immediate release. India has not yet named the pilot.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, and went to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after a Pakistani militant attack on India’s parliament.
The latest escalation marks a sudden turnaround in relations between the two countries, both of which claim Kashmir in full, but only rule in part.
Follow how we covered the news as it unfolded
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Planes are being re-routed to avoid Pakistani airspace.
Here is the route of a Singapore Airlines flight. It shows the dramatic turn around as the plane approaches Pakistan.
The flight path for Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to London Heathrow (Credit: Flight Radar 24)
India has said that one of its air force planes was "lost" in an air skirmish with Pakistan and its pilot is "missing in action."
Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan has said he is ready to cooperate with India over the Kashmir suicide bombings investigation.
Some breaking news from our Asia Editor, Adam Withnall, that India has confirmed it has shot down a Pakistani plane in a clash on the Kashmir border.
Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan has said the intention of the exercise into Indian airspace was "only to show Pakistani capability" - they intentionally avoided casualties and damage.
In case you missed it, here's a quick reminder about what started this latest tension:
On 14 February a suicide car bomber attacked a paramilitary convoy on the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir in the Himalayas, killing more than 40 troops.
The militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The suicide bomber was from Indian Kashmir.
New Delhi long has accused Pakistan of cultivating such groups, something denied by Islamabad.
India launched an airstrike on Pakistani territory early Tuesday that New Delhi called a pre-emptive strike against militant camps in Pakistan.
India said its bombs killed a "very large number" of militants, while Pakistan said there were no casualties in an airstrike it described as being carried out "in haste."
Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has called for talks with India and hoped 'better sense' would prevail to deescalate the dispute with its nuclear-armed neighbour following air strikes by both sides.
History tells us that wars are full of miscalculation. My question is that given the weapons we have can we afford miscalculation. We should sit down and talk."
Talking about today’s operation, Imran Khan confirmed that Pakistan shot down two jets which crossed into Pakistan administered Kashmir and said that the ”pilots are with Pakistan”.
Indian police say officials have recovered four bodies from the wreckage of an Indian air force chopper that crashed in Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir.
Senior police officer Munir Ahmed Khan said the chopper crashed close to an airport on Wednesday in Budgam area, in the outskirts of the region's main city of Srinagar. The Srinagar airport, which has been shut along with two other airports for civilian flights in the region, is also an air force station.
Police said they were still going through the wreckage and did not immediately identify the victims.
Local residents earlier said they saw three bodies at the site.
Eyewitnesses said soldiers fired warning shots in air to keep residents away from the crash site.
Why is the tension between these two nations so dangerous?
Both India and Pakistan are believed to possess more than 100 nuclear warheads each and have conducted atomic weapon tests. Both countries have test-fired nuclear-capable missiles.
Pakistan also has refused to renounce a first-strike option with its atomic bombs should it feel outgunned in a conventional war. It takes less than four minutes for a missile fired from Pakistan to reach India.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists warns that "computer models have predicted that the physical impacts of a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, or even a single strike on a large city, would be devastating and would reverberate throughout the world."
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