Pakistan-India news: Tensions rise around Kashmir conflict as both countries claim to shoot down each other's military jets
Risk of conflict rises dramatically
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India has accused Pakistan of an “unprovoked act of aggression” after both countries claimed to have shot down each other’s military jets.
Islamabad captured an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a 1971 war.
Tension has been running high since a suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police earlier this month.
But the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Tuesday when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base.
New Delhi claimed at least 300 militants were killed in Tuesday’s strike, while Pakistan says no one was killed.
Pakistan shoots down Indian fighter jets: Reaction in pictures
Show all 28The White House condemned the intensifying conflict and urged “both sides to take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation”.
Pakistan’s envoy to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, said Islamabad would like to see the Trump administration play a more active role in easing the crisis. “We would certainly like to have more, and would certainly like to see more active involvement of the United States,” he told reporters.
At the same time, he said the lack of US condemnation of India’s strike on Pakistan is “construed and understood as an endorsement of the Indian position, and that is what emboldened them even more.”
Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan called for talks with India and hoped “better sense” would prevail so that both sides could de-escalate.
“History tells us that wars are full of miscalculation. My question is that, given the weapons we have, can we afford miscalculation,” Mr Khan said during a brief televised broadcast to the nation. “We should sit down and talk.”
The Pakistan government’s official Twitter account released a video of a man it claimed was an Indian pilot who had been shot down.
The man, whom Pakistan has named as Wing Commander Abhi Nandan and whose face was bloodied and blindfolded, gives his name and service number before telling a man questioning him: “I’m sorry sir, that’s all I’m supposed to tell you.”
A statement from India’s foreign ministry said the pilot’s treatment was a “vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force in violation of all norms of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention,” ordering his immediate release. India has not yet named the pilot.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, and went to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after a Pakistani militant attack on India’s parliament.
The latest escalation marks a sudden turnaround in relations between the two countries, both of which claim Kashmir in full, but only rule in part.
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How did the dispute over Kashmir begin?
When Britain granted independence to the region in 1947, it divided the Indian subcontinent into a predominantly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan.
Some areas could decide their own fate.
In Kashmir, the only Muslim majority area ruled by a Hindu monarch, its ruler decided against giving the population a choice.
That started the first India-Pakistan war in 1947.
The conflict ended in 1949 when a United Nations resolution established the Line of Control dividing Kashmir between the two nations and calling for a direct vote on which country should control it.
That vote has never been held.
Indian and Pakistan fought a second war over Kashmir in 1965.
What has happened since?
India and Pakistan fought a third war in 1971 over what was East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh. In 1999 and 2000, after Pakistan's military sent a ground force into Indian-controlled Kashmir at Kargil, the two countries faced off and a worried world urged both to pull back from the brink of war, fearing it could escalate into a nuclear conflict. Even in times of relative peace the two nations readily engage in brinkmanship and aggressive rhetoric.
How do the militaries of India and Pakistan compare?
India, home to 1.3 billion people, has a conventional army of about 1.4 million soldiers.
Pakistan, with a population of over 200 million people, has about 650,000 troops.
Both countries have spent billions over the years developing conventional arms.
Last year, Pakistan spent about 11 billion US dollars or about 3.6 per cent of its gross domestic product on defence.
India meanwhile allocated about 58 billion US dollars, or 2.1 per cent of its GDP on defence, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
India's ballooning military spending has propelled it to the world's fifth-biggest defence spender, surpassing the United Kingdom, according to the IISS.
At Prime Minister's Questions in the UK, Theresa May called for restraint as the tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate.
Leader of the British opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, followed up Theresa May's comments by saying he "strongly supports dialogue between India and Pakistan to reduce the tensions".
India's former ambassador to the United States says that a new red line with Pakistan has been drawn.
Retired diplomat Lalit Mansingh said that India's policy of strategic restraint "is no longer."
Mr Mansingh says a new doctrine was established by India's pre-dawn airstrikes on Tuesday in Pakistani territory that Indian officials said targeted terrorist infrastructure.
Theresa May's full comment on the current tension between India and Pakistan:
"The UK is deeply concerned about rising tensions between India and Pakistan and urgently calls for restraint on both sides to avoid further escalation.
We are in regular contact with both countries, urging dialogue and diplomatic solutions to ensure regional stability. We are working closely with international partners including through the UN Security Council to de-escalate tensions."
Several airlines, including Emirates and Qatar Airways, suspended flights to Pakistan on Wednesday after the South Asian nation closed its air space following heightened tensions with neighbouring India.
Etihad, flydubai, Gulf Air and SriLankan Airlines also suspended services to the country and flight tracking portals showed Singapore Airlines, British Airways and others were forced to reroute flights.
Airlines flying over India and Pakistan to Europe, the Middle East and Asia were disrupted and some flights were routed through Mumbai on India's western coast, so they could head further south and avoid Pakistan air space, an Indian government official told Reuters.
"Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan has officially closed its airspace until further notice," the Pakistani regulator said in a tweet.
Mark Martin, founder and chief executive at Martin Consulting India, said about 800 flights a day use the India-Pakistan air corridor, making it "very critical".
You can't overfly China, so you have to overfly Pakistan and India and go to Southeast Asia and Australia. Most of the traffic destined for Bangkok and Singapore will have to fly over Iran and then possibly take a detour."
The president of the Indian National Congress has tweeted calling for the safe return of the captured Indian pilot:
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