NEW DELHI: Pakistani fighter jets have shot down two Indian aircraft in a significant escalation of tensions just a day after India said its Air Force had bombed a terrorist training camp inside Pakistan.
Pakistan said it downed two Indian jets in its airspace and captured two pilots, but insisted it does not "want to go towards war" with its neighbour.
India confirmed the loss of one of its planes and said it had shot down a Pakistani fighter jet, in a conflict played out over the skies of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
In a sign of the deepening crisis, Pakistan closed its airspace "until further notice". At least six airports were shuttered in India, and a vast area of airspace north of New Delhi was closed to civilian flights.
A Pakistani military spokesman said that one of the downed Indian planes had fallen in Pakistani-held Kashmir, while the other came down on the Indian side of the heavily militarised de facto border dividing the territory.
"We do not want escalation, we do not want to go towards war," Major General Asif Ghafoor told a press conference, calling for talks with New Delhi.
One of the captured pilots was in custody and the other was in hospital, he said.
Ghafoor said the jets had been shot down after Pakistani planes earlier flew across the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, to the Indian side in a show of strength, hitting non-military targets including supply depots.
Afterwards, he said, the two Indian planes crossed the LoC into Pakistani airspace.
"The Pakistan Air Force was ready, they took them on, there was an engagement. As a result both the Indian planes were shot down and the wreckage of one fell on our side while the wreckage of the other fell on their side," he said.
He denied initial reports that a Pakistan plane had been shot down, saying accounts an F-16 had been lost were incorrect as none were used in the action.
Later, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Rajeesh Kumar announced that a Pakistan jet was hit as it took part in an operation "to target military installations on the Indian side".
"The Pakistani aircraft was seen by ground forces falling from the sky on the Pakistan side," he told a briefing.
"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."
In a separate incident, a helicopter crashed and exploded into flames outside the main city of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing three people, officials said, adding they were investigating the cause.
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Earlier report:
India’s ANI news agency is reporting that a Pakistan Air Force F-16 which violated Indian air space was shot down in Indian retaliatory fire three kilometres within Pakistan territory in Lam Valley.
'This is unprecedented territory, we haven’t had tit-for-tat air strikes between India and Pakistan since the 1971 war,' said Anit Mukherjee, a former Indian Army major and assistant professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, by phone. 'We don’t know what will come from this. But it seems like Pakistan has given a response. And there have been casualties -- captures, deaths.'
'We have had this sort of thing happening on the ground for the last 20 years,' Mukherjee added. 'It’s basically a shifting of the conflict to the air.' (continues below)
WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE
Indian defence ministry spokesman Col. Aman Anand did not respond to calls or texts for comment and there has been no statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The Airports Authority of India has notified airlines that airports the country’s north have been shut down, spokesman J.B. Singh said by phone. Some flights in India and Pakistani airspace are returning to origin, while others appear to have sought alternate routing, according to Flightradar24.com.
Diplomatic Outreach
Earlier today it appeared the bitter rivals were looking to lower the temperature with renewed diplomatic outreach.
Pakistan has sought help from the United Nations to de-escalate the situation, while India -- which is facing national elections in a few weeks -- reached out to countries including the US, UK, China, France and Russia and urged the government in Islamabad to take action against terror groups based in the country.
The diplomatic back-and-forth came after India’s Air Force said its jets bombed targets inside Pakistan, which scrambled its own jets in response, for the first time in nearly 50 years. The target was a camp run by Jaish-e-Mohammed which claimed responsibility for the Feb 14 suicide car bombing in Kashmir which killed 40 members of India’s security forces.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the foreign ministers of both countries late on Tuesday. He stressed Washington’s 'close security partnership' with New Delhi, while urging Pakistan to avoid any military response and take 'meaningful action' against terrorist groups operating on its soil.
'They will not allow things to go out of control because both countries are facing tremendous pressure from global powers including China and the US,' said Rashid Ahmed Khan, head of politics and international relations department at University of Central Punjab, Lahore said by phone. 'There will be a controlled and managed escalation.'
Kashmir Clashes
Meanwhile, security forces clashed with militants in Indian-administered Kashmir early Wednesday, killing two insurgents, according to a security spokesman.
Prior to Tuesday’s attack, which India said killed more than 300 people in a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp inside Pakistan, New Delhi had detained more than 150 people mainly linked to a local separatist group and boosted its military presence in the region, according to news reports.
On Wednesday, Pakistan announced its Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had sought out United Nations assistance to help de-escalate tensions with India. 'India’s deliberate aggressive action is a sheer violation of UN Charter, international laws and intra-state norms. Pakistan reserves the right to respond in its defence. UNSC must immediate stop India from its aggressive actions,' the letter said.
A meeting of the country’s top civilian and military leadership, including Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, is expected to be held today to discuss the situation.
(Reuters video)
Tuesday’s strikes represent the worst escalation since 2001, when Pakistan and India moved ballistic missiles and troops to their border following an attack on parliament in New Delhi that was also blamed on Jaish-e-Mohammad. India and Pakistan have fought three major wars since partition and independence in 1947.
Both India and the US see Pakistan as providing safe haven for terrorist groups and point to the fact that the leadership of groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the Mumbai attacks in 2008, still live freely in Pakistan.