Shaun
Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif has warned there was a “clear and present” threat of possible nuclear escalation with neighbour India. Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to “avenge” the deaths of 31 people after India hit Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with pre-dawn airstrikes on Wednesday. India said it targeted nine militant hideouts in retaliation for a terror attack that killed 26 tourists in April.
Pakistan said it shot down some Indian aircraft and vowed to retaliate as tensions soared in the worst clash between the two countries for over two decades.
Mr Sharif said India must “suffer the consequences” for its “cowardly” attack. The Independent spoke to witnesses at the site of one crashed jet, who described a huge explosion lighting up the night sky, though Indian officials have refused to acknowledge that any planes were downed.
Heavy shelling has taken place throughout the night and morning across the de facto border in Kashmir. The Indian army said 12 Indian civilians and a soldier had been killed by “indiscriminate” firing.
More than 20 airports in the northern and western parts of India, bordering Pakistan, have been shut until 10 May, local media reported.
Major flight operators in India issued advisories for civilians affected by the closure and announced hundreds of flight cancellations till Saturday.
However, there has been no official confirmation of this from India’s civil aviation authorities about the closure of airports.
Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed overnight to avenge the deaths of 31 people killed in India’s cross border missile strikes but gave no details, raising fears of a broader conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
India hit Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with missiles yesterday and Pakistan vowed to retaliate saying it shot down five Indian aircraft.
Pakistan said at least 31 of its civilians had been killed and 46 wounded, a military spokesperson said, and that India “had ignited an inferno in the region”.
India said it struck nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites, some of them linked to an attack by militants that killed 25 Hindu tourists and one local in Indian Kashmir last month.”
For the blatant mistake that India made last night, it will now have to pay the price,” Mr Sharif said in a televised address on state broadcaster PTV to the nation.
India to hold all-party meeting today
Prime minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting today after New Delhi struck “terror infrastructure” inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The meeting to debrief the political party members will begin at 11am (local time) at the Indian parliament.
The opposition parties had overwhelmingly shown their support to the armed forces yesterday following India’s missile strikes on Pakistan. Pakistan’s air defence systems shot down an Indian drone this morning near a naval air base in the eastern city of Lahore, police and security officials said.
It was not immediately clear whether the drone was armed. Local police official Mohammad Rizwan said only that a drone was downed near Waltan, a residential area in Lahore that also contains military installations. Local media reported that two additional drones were shot down in other cities in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar said that national security advisers (NSAs) of Pakistan and India have spoken following New Delhi’s airstrikes on Pakistani soil.“There has been contact between the two, yes,” he told TRT World.
India launched strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir early morning yesterday, targeting nine alleged militant hideouts in retaliation against the killing of tourists on the Indian side of Kashmir.
‘India has briefed envoys from foreign countries that it is willing to act against Pakistan again if Islamabad retaliates over Wednesday morning’s strikes.
India hit Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with missiles yesterday and Pakistan said it shot down some Indian aircraft and vowed to retaliate, in their worst clash in over two decades.
According to Reuters, Indian officials met with more than a dozen foreign envoys yesterday and told them: “If Pakistan responds, India will respond.”
The statement comes after Pakistan’s prime minister vowed to “avenge” the civilian deaths in India’s airstrikes. It has put the toll at 31, including women and children, while India says it only targeted militant hideouts and that there were no civilian casualties.
Since the airstrikes, both sides have exchanged heavy artillery fire along the Line of Control that divides the disputed Kashmir region.
Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif has warned there was a “clear and present” threat of possible nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan.
India hit Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with missiles yesterday and Pakistan said it shot down some Indian aircraft and vowed to retaliate, in their worst clash in over two decades.
Mr Asif stressed that the risk of nuclear conflict is real and cannot be ignored, Geo TV reported.
He said Pakistan has faced such threats before, and the region could once again be on the brink of a standoff.
Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Asif said he welcomes US efforts to help de-escalate the crisis between India and Pakistan.
President Donald Trump has offered to serve as a mediator between the two nations and pledged: “If I can do anything to help, I will, I will be there.”
Mr Asif said Pakistan’s Air Force had shot down five Indian planes and two drones. “We could have taken down 10 planes yesterday,” Mr Asif was quoted by The Web Press Global as saying.
“We had the opportunity, but we restricted it to five planes and two UAVs because we didn’t want to expand this situation.”
He said Mr Trump’s comments on hoping the conflict “ends very quickly” were helpful.
Mr Asif said he would welcome further US efforts to bring “down the temperature in the region”.
At least 12 civilians, including four children, and a soldier were killed in India-administered Kashmir’s Poonch district in Pakistan’s artillery shelling along the border, the Indian police said.
The intense shelling along the line of control, the de facto border separating the two nations, triggered evacuations from a number of villages.
The children killed in the shelling were aged between seven and 14 years, police told the Hindustan Times, adding that about 42 others sustained injuries.
