SHADOW OF INDO-PAK WAR LOOMS LARGE

PTI

 

NEW DELHI

An IAF pilot was captured by Pakistan after an air combat on Wednesday during which the two sides said they shot down each other’s warplanes that followed an unsuccessful attempt to target Indian military installations in retaliatory strikes that sparked fears of war.

The aerial engagement between India and Pakistan for the first time since the 1971 war marked a dramatic escalation of confrontation prompting world leaders to urge the two neighbouring countries to exercise “utmost restraint”.

India said it shot down a F-16 warplane of Pakistan while it lost a MiG 21 during the fierce engagement between the air forces of the two countries along the line of control.

The Pakistan Army retracted its earlier statement that two Indian Air Force pilots were arrested and in the evening said it had “only one” pilot in its custody.

“There is only one pilot under Pakistan Army’s custody. Wing Comd Abhi Nandan is being treated as per norms of military ethics,” Pakistani military spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor said in the evening.

IAF sources identified him as Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

A day after India bombed Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest training camp in Pakistan, it was a morning of developments moving with dizzying rapidity.

Islamabad claimed it hit back at India by bringing down two Indian military aircraft, one of which crashed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir while the other fell in Jammu and Kashmir. Officials here said a Pakistani Air Force F-16 fighter jet was shot down by Indian air defence forces in Jammu region’s Rajouri sector.

During the encounter, a MiG 21 was lost and the pilot was missing.

Three Pakistani fighter jets entered Indian air space at 9:58 am to target key military installations in Rajouri and Naushera in Jammu and Kashmir, as part of the retaliatory strike, official sources said.

Though the three Pakistani jets violated Indian airspace, the package of the aircraft deployed by Pakistan Air Force for the operation was “significantly large” as it comprised a fleet of JF-17 and F-16 combat aircraft, the sources said.

The sources said the Pakistani jets targeted Indian

Army’s bases in Krishna Ghati and Nangi Tekri and an ammunition point in Narian. However, the bombs dropped by the Pakistani jets fell in uninhabited areas.

Minutes after Pakistani jets violated Indian air space, the IAF’s Combat Air Patrol, comprising MiG-21 and other jets engaged with the enemy aircraft, successfully thwarting their attempts to bomb a number of key military installations in Naushera and Rajouri, they said.

“This morning PAF (Pakistan Air Force) jets while remaining in Pakistani airspace engaged six targets across the LoC,” Major General Asif Ghafoor told reporters in Islamabad.

“Our pilots locked on those six targets and we struck on open places,” he said, adding that it was decided that the PAF will not hit the military targets.

He said some of the targets were in Bhimber Galli and Narian area where the supply depots were engaged from a distance.

“After the PAF strikes, two  IAF jets entered Pakistani airspace and the PAF took them on and the two IAF were shot down. The wreckage of one (aircraft) fell inside Pakistan (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) while the second fell inside India.”

As tension mounted, the entire airspace north of New Delhi was briefly “vacated”. Nine airports in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab were closed for civilian traffic for some part of the morning but opened later in the day.

Jammu and Kashmir was the centre of much of the action on a day of escalating tensions between the two neighbours.

There was also nightlong heavy firing and shelling on forward and civilian areas from across the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch with the Army and the Border Security Force being put on the highest degree of alertness.

All residents of the border areas were asked to remain inside their homes and not venture outside.

While the government and the defence establishment took stock of the situation, building up since the February 14 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in which 40 soldiers were killed, attention shifted to the IAF pilot in enemy territory.

Officials said Pakistani fighter jets violated Indian airspace in Jammu region’s Poonch and Rajouri sectors but were pushed back by Indian aircraft. The jets dropped bombs while returning but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, they said.

“Pakistan has responded this morning by using its air force to target military installations on the Indian side. Due to our high state of readiness and alertness, Pakistan’s attempts were foiled successfully,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. in a  press statement.

He said the Pakistan Air Force activity was detected and the Indian Air Force responded instantly.

“In that aerial engagement, one Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft was shot down by a MiG 21 Bison of the Indian Air Force. The Pakistani aircraft was seen by ground forces falling from the sky on the Pakistan side.

“In this engagement, we have unfortunately lost one MiG 21. The pilot is missing in action. Pakistan has claimed that he is in their custody. We are ascertaining the facts,” he said.

In Islamabad, the Pakistan Army released a 46-second video showing a blindfolded man claiming that he is Abhinandan.

“I am an IAF officer. My service No is 27981,” the man is seen as saying in the  video.

The veracity of the video could not be ascertained.