MUZAFFARABAD/ NEW DELHI: India hit Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir with missiles on Wednesday and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian aircraft and vowed to retaliate, in the worst clash in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
India told more than a dozen foreign envoys in New Delhi that “if Pakistan responds, India will respond”, fuelling fears of a larger military conflict in one of the world’s most dangerous - and most populated - nuclear flashpoint regions.
Islamabad pledged to respond “at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty”, emphatically rejecting Indian allegations it had terrorist camps on its territory.
The Indian strikes included Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, for the first time since the last full-scale war between the old enemies more than half a century ago.
“The targets we had set were destroyed with exactness according to a well-planned strategy,” India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. “We have shown sensitivity by ensuring that no civilian population was affected in the slightest.”
Islamabad said none of the six locations targeted in Pakistan were militant camps. At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 wounded, a Pakistan military spokesperson said.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of AJK, the Indian strike had badly damaged a mosque-seminary in the heart of the city. Five missiles killed three people in the two storey structure, which also had residential quarters, locals said.
Reuters journalists saw the roof and walls of the concrete building crumbled under the impact of the strikes and household items scattered on the first floor.
The Pakistan prime minister’s office said five Indian fighter jets and drones had been shot down, although this was not confirmed by India.
Local government sources in IIOJK told Reuters three fighter jets had crashed in separate areas of the Himalayan region overnight and their pilots had been hospitalised. Indian defence ministry officials did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Images circulating on local media showed a large, damaged cylindrical chunk of silver-coloured metal lying in a field at one of the crash sites. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the image.
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