India Launches 'Preemptive' Air Strike On Pakistan-Based Militants
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
India has launched what it called a “preemptive” air strike against Pakistan-based militants following a suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir earlier this month.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said the Indian Air Force targeted Balakot, about 80 kilometers from the Line of Control, which serves as a de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir.
Pakistan's military earlier accused India's air force of violating its airspace, and said it scrambled its own fighter jets in response.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned New Delhi not to challenge Islamabad, saying that "better sense should prevail in India,” according to Radio Pakistan.
It is said to be the first air strike launched across the Line of Control since a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in 1971.
Tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi have escalated since a suicide attack claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group killed at least 41 soldiers on the Indian side of divided Kashmir.
Gokhale told a news conference that the Indian strike had targeted a militant camp, adding: "A very large number of [JeM] terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen (suicide) action were eliminated."
“In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary," he also said.
'Terrorist Camp'
The Indian news agency ANI, citing unnamed military sources, reported that 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets had attacked a "terrorist camp."
Earlier, Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted that Indian jets had crossed the Line of Control, and traveled as many as 6.4 kilometers into Pakistan-administered territory.
"Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back," Ghafoor wrote in a separate tweet.
The Indian aircraft "released [a] payload in haste... near Balakot," he said, adding that there were "no casualties or damage."
India says its neighbor had had a "direct hand" in a February 14 suicide attack on Indian security forces, and accuses it of providing sanctuary to the militants. Islamabad denies involvement.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two of their three full-fledged wars over Kashmir since their partition during independence from Britain in 1947.