India strikes inside Pakistan after attack

Islamabad accuses New Delhi of 'grave aggression' as tensions rise since Feb 14

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI－The Pakistani military said on Tuesday that Indian warplanes violated the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region and dropped a "payload" but no injuries were recorded.

Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor, chief of the army's Inter-Services Public Relations, said the Pakistan Air Force "immediately scrambled and Indian aircraft went back".

The Pakistan military spokesman said the Indian aircraft "intruded" from the Muzaffarabad sector in a Pakistan-controlled area of Kashmir.

Ghafoor said on social media that facing timely and effective responses from Pakistani air forces, the Indian warplanes "released payload in haste while escaping which fell near Balakot".

Saying that more information would be released, Ghafoor posted four pictures online of the alleged site where Indian aircraft dropped a payload near Balakot, purportedly showing a bomb crater in a forest area but no serious damage.

He said there were no casualties or damage, despite an Indian government source saying 300 militants had been killed.

Pakistani villagers in the area where the Indian jets struck said they heard four loud bangs in the early hours of Tuesday.

China, EU urge restraint

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Tuesday that Beijing hopes both New Delhi and Islamabad "can exercise restraint and adopt actions that will help stabilize the situation in the region and improve mutual relations".

The European Union on Tuesday also called on India and Pakistan to exercise "maximum restraint".

Meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi accused India of committing "grave aggression", saying his country had the right to give an appropriate response.

Qureshi was speaking after presiding over an emergency meeting in Islamabad to review the situation after the Indian Air Force's "intrusion" into the Pakistani side of the Line of Control, a spokesman of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

"India has violated the Line of Control and Pakistan has the right to self-defense," Qureshi said.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan had summoned a meeting to decide a possible response.

Earlier, the foreign minister said in a statement that "better sense should prevail in India", advising India not to challenge Pakistan.

"The nation should not be worried over the Indian act as the defenders of the country are fully prepared to respond to any misadventure," he said.

The incident came amid growing tensions between Pakistan and India following the Feb 14 suicide attack on a paramilitary police convoy in India-controlled Kashmir. Forty-one people died.

The Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which was banned in Pakistan in 2002, had claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the Indian Central Reserve Police Force in the town of Pulwama.

Confirming the airstrikes, Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale said a terror camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad was the lone target of the "non-military preemptive action" by India in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

"In the face of imminent danger, a pre-emptive strike became absolutely necessary," he said.

Gokhale said "a very large number" of militants were killed in the strike on a training base in Balakot, but did not provide a precise figure for the casualties.

A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes. But no details were provided.

Xinhua/Reuters/AFP