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Pakistan captures Indian pilot
Pakistani military officials posted a photo of an Indian fighter pilot they said was shot down and captured.
NEW DEHLI — In the most ominous military confrontation between India and Pakistan since both tested nuclear weapons two decades ago, Pakistan said it shot down two Indian military aircraft over its territory Wednesday and launched strikes in Indiancontrolled Kashmir, while India claimed it shot down a Pakistani fighter jet in the “aerial encounter.”
An especially volatile aspect of the confrontation was Pakistan’s capture of an Indian fighter pilot. Pakistani military officials posted a photo of him on Twitter sitting in a room, and they said he was being treated “as per norms of military ethics.”
But Pakistani television showed a video of the pilot, blindfolded and apparently with blood on his face. India’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly objected to Pakistan’s vulgar display of an injured personnel” and expected “his immediate and safe return.”
While experts warned that the clash could easily escalate out of control, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told his nation Wednesday that he wanted to avoid war with India and urged, “Let’s settle this with talks.” There was no public statement by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Our action was only intended to convey that if you can come into our country, we can do the same,” Khan said, referring to airstrikes by India on Tuesday and Pakistan’s response on Wednesday. Addressing India, he said, “With the weapons you have and the weapons we have, can we really afford a miscalculation?”
The two days of tit-for-tat airstrikes and Wednesday’s aerial dogfight, the first since 1971, were triggered by a Feb. 14 terrorist bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian security personnel. The bombing, claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group called Jaish-e-Mohammad, was the deadliest single attack in 30 years of protests and conflict over the disputed Himalayan region, which is claimed in its entirety by both nations.
Indian and Pakistani officials gave conflicting accounts of the events.
India claimed it had bombed a militant camp inside Pakistan on Tuesday, killing scores, but Pakistan said the bombs had fallen on an uninhabited forested area.
Pakistan also denied India’s claims that a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet was shot down.
The clash drew expressions of alarm from foreign governments and regional analysts, who noted that India and Pakistan have previously fought three conventional wars, two of them over Kashmir. They also engaged in a brief highaltitude fight in the Kargil mountains of Kashmir in 1999, shortly after both countries tested nuclear weapons.
Moeed Yusuf, a Pakistan expert at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington, said he feared the conflict could escalate dangerously, in large part because neither Khan, who has been in office only a few months, nor Modi, who is seeking re-election this spring, may be able to back down without losing domestic political stature.