India says it launched airstrike in Balakot; Pakistan says intrusion aborted

Pakistan Air Force aborted an early morning Indian incursion into Azad Jammu and Kashmir early Tuesday, Pakistani military said while New Delhi claimed the Indian jets targeted a camp of Jaish e Mohammed militants –which claimed responsibility for the February 14 Pulwama attack.

The governments of prime ministers Imran Khan and Narendra Modi – an ultanationalist seeking reelection in a few months – held meetings in Islamabad and New Delhi to examine the situation after the intrusion into Pakistan airspace.

Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, close to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, known as Azad Kashmir. Pakistan called it an airspace violation from across the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Pakistan said the Indian aircraft intruded from Muzaffarabad sector in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and when Pakistani fighter planes scrambled they dropped payload on their way back to India.

“Indian aircraft’ intrusion across LOC in Muzaffarabad Sector within AJ&K was 3-4 miles.Under forced hasty withdrawal aircrafts released payload which had free fall in open area. No infrastructure got hit, no casualties. Technical details and other important information to follow,” Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor, said in a tweet at 6:36 am.

He revealed that India tried to intrude from three points.

A “timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force” forced the intruding aircraft to “release payload in haste while escaping, which fell near Balakot,” he wrote.

“No casualties or damage” were reported due to the dropping of “payload,” Gen Ghafoor, who is Director General of the media wing of the army, Inter Services Public Relations, said.

The pictures released by General Ghafoor show a burnt out steep mountain side with no sign of any damage to any property, apart from a few burnt pine trees.

“No infrastructure got hit, no casualties. Technical details and other important information to follow,” he said in a series of tweets.

Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told a press conference Indian fighter planes struck a Jaish-e-Mohammad camp inside Pakistan.

The Times of India cited sources as claiming that JeM militants who were operating out of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir had been moved to Balakot. The Indian Air Force targeted their hideout on a hill in  Balakot, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa just outside of Kashmir, and killed up to 350 militants and their trainers who were sleeping early Tuesday, the report claimed.

Publicly, the Indian foreign secretary did not take journalists’ questions and left the briefing after reading out a statement.

Pakistani officials have rejected the Indian claims, especially the claim that IAF jets remained in the Pakistani airspace for 21 minutes to carry out the surgical strikes. “You have not surprised. The response will come. The response will come differently. You have chosen the path of war.”

After a meeting, chaired by PM Khan in Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan will reserves the right to respond to the airspace intrusion at a place and time of its choosing.

Islamabad has planned to brief the international community about the situation arising from the airspace violation.