Two Indian warplanes downed, pilot captured

MUZAFARABAD, PAKISTAN — Pakistan’s military said Wednesday it shot down two Indian warplanes in the disputed region of Kashmir and captured a pilot, answering an airstrike a day earlier by Indian fighter jets inside Pakistan and raising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to a level unseen in two decades.

Within hours Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan went on television urging peace talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying both countries needed to step back from the brink and warning “miscalculations” could drag their two countries into a war that neither side would benefit from.

“Let’s sit together to talk to find a solution,” Khan said.

There was no reply from Modi, but India acknowledged one of its air force planes was “lost” in skirmishes with Pakistan and its pilot was “missing in action.” Pakistan’s military later circulated a video of a man with a mustache who identified himself as the Indian pilot, sipping tea and responding to questions, mostly by saying, “You know I can’t answer that.”

He appeared in good health as he was questioned about his hometown, his aircraft and his mission.

The downing of the Indian aircraft came on a chaotic day that also saw mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir kill six civilians and wound several others.

A helicopter crash in the region also killed six Indian air force officials and a civilian on the ground.

Pakistan responded by shutting down its civilian airspace.

The Indian warplanes went down Wednesday morning in Kashmir, a mountainous region claimed by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after their creation in 1947.

One of the downed planes crashed in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir while the other went down in an Indian-controlled section of the Himalayan region, Pakistan’s army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said.

He said Pakistani troops on the ground captured the Indian pilot. He had said earlier two pilots were captured but did not explain the discrepancy.

“We have no intention of escalation, but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm,” Ghafoor said.

GETTY IMAGES Pakistani soldiers stand next to wreckage of an Indian warplane that Pakistan says it shot down Wednesday in Kashmir.