[image: image.png] Indian ministers have said that air force jets have struck “terror camps” across the ceasefire line in Kashmir, the first aerial bombing over the disputed border since the country went to war with Pakistan in 1971.
“The military has taken this necessary step for the country’s security. It was an act of extreme valour. PM [Narendra] Modi had earlier given the armed forces the freedom to take action. Today, the entire country is with the forces,” said Prakash Javadekar, the human resources development minister, in the first official acknowledgement of the operation on Tuesday.
The early morning incursion, which the Pakistanis say caused no casualties or damage, comes amid the highest tensions after a suicide attack on a paramilitary convoy that killed at least 40 security personnel earlier this month.
“Air Force carried out aerial strike early morning today at terror camps across the LoC [Line of Control] and Completely destroyed it,” the Indian minister of state for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said earlier on Twitter.
The Guardian view on Kashmir: the world’s most dangerous place Read more The Indian army and senior ministers have yet to officially comment but sources told an Indian news agency that 12 fighter jets had crossed into Pakistani territory and destroyed a militant training camp.
India’s cabinet committee on security was meeting in Delhi and was expected to make a statement afterwards.
Pakistan’s armed forces spokesman major-general Asif Ghafoor said on Tuesday morning there had been contact between the two countries’ aircraft after a breach by the Indian side.
“Indian Air Force violated Line of Control,” Ghafoor tweeted around 5am local time. “Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back.”
[image: image.png] He added in a tweet two hours later: “Indian aircrafts intruded from Muzafarabad sector. Facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force released payload in haste while escaping which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage.”
He said the aircraft did not intrude beyond 3 to 4 miles over the ceasefire border known as the “line of control” based on lines established after the first war the two countries fought over Kashmir shortly after independence in 1947.
“Under forced hasty withdrawal aircrafts released payload which had free fall in open area,” he said “No infrastructure got hit, no casualties.”
His comments indicate the strike could have targeted a village called Balakot near the ceasefire border.
Balakot is also the name of a larger city about 50 miles from the border. Significantly, it is the Pakistani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, outside the territory that Indian claims as its own, but one that has been previously reported to be a hotspot for Jaish-e-Mohammed, the militant group which claimed the 14 February attack on Indian security personnel.
Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that “better sense” should prevail in India and warned the country not to challenge Pakistan.
According to a statement cited by state-run Radio Pakistan, he said: “the nation should not be worried over the Indian act as the defenders of the country are fully prepared to respond to any misadventure.”
Indian news agency Asian News International quoted Indian air force sources claiming 12 Mirage fighter jets had struck “a major terrorist camp” over the border with 1,000 kg of explosives. The attack took place around 3.30am, the agency claimed.
Source: theguardian
