Indian Aircraft Cross LOC, Hit Territory Inside Pakistan

NEW DELHI -- Indian Air Force fighter jets have crossed the Line of Control between India and Pakistan and carried out attacks for the first time since 1971 in the latest development since deadly Pulwama suicide attack in which more than 40 of the Indian soldiers were killed.

Pakistan has said there were no casualties from the attacks and India has said it was a preemptive strike and killed many Jaish-e-Mohammad extremists. Follow us for the latest developments as tensions grow along both sides of the border.

India Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday that the Indian Air Force had carried out a strike inside Pakistan, targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp. "A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen [suicide] action" have been killed, he said.

He said that India had carried out a "non-military pre-emptive" action against the Jaish-e-Mohammad's biggest terror camp, in Balakot early on Tuesday. He added that credible intelligence had received that the Jaish-e-Mohammed was attempting other terror attacks in various parts of India and that "fidayeen jihadis" were being trained for this purpose. "In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary," Gokhale said.

The air strike is a response to the Jaish-e-Mohammad attack on paramilitary forces in Pulwama in Kashmir on February 14, which claimed the lives of over 40 troops. Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar has his headquarters in Pakistan's Bahawalpur, Gokhale said. The Jaish was designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations in 2001.

This Balakot facility was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, Gokhale.

"Pakistan has taken no action to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil," he said.

According to ANI, 12 Mirage 2000 jets took part in the operation at around 3.30 am. The jets crossed the Line of Control and completely destroyed the target.

Gokhale said that when India selected the target, it aimed to ensure that civilian casualties would be avoided. The facility that was attacked is located in thick forest, on a hilltop, far away from any civilian presence, he said.

According to NDTV, following the strike, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security to take stock of developments. The meeting was attended by Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

At 5.12 am, Major General Asif Ghafoor of the Pakistan Army claimed on Twitter that the Indian Air Force had violated the Line of Control. He said that Pakistani jets were scrambled and the Indian jets went back into Indian territory. At 7.06 am, the officer claimed that the Indian jets had intruded the Muzafarabad sector and released the payloads in haste after Pakistani response. The payloads fell near Balakot, he claimed, adding that there were no causalities or damage. He also released photographs that claimed to show the effects of the strike.

However, the Press Trust of India, quoting unidentified Indian officials, said that the strike was carried out in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

The last major strike carried out by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan was during the 1971 war for Bangladesh liberation. This is the first time before India and Pakistan became nuclear powers. Even during the Kargil war in 1999, the incursions made were described as inadvertent and not specifically planned by the Air Force. In 2016, the Indian Army carried out a surgical strike across the LoC after a terrorist attack in Uri.

The BBC Urdu service reported that villagers in Balakot in Pakistan's Manshera district claimed that they heard loud blasts between 3 am and 4 am on Tuesday. This is a district in the Hazara division of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and contradicted the claims of the Pakistani Army official on the location of the strike.

ANI reported that the Indian Air Force has put on high alert all air defence systems along the India-Pakistan border and the Line of Control.

Retired Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur told NDTV that since the strikes were on terrorist camps, Pakistan's options for retaliation was non-existent as there are no terrorist camps on the Indian side of the border. If Pakistan decides to attack government or civilian targets in India, it would be deemed a serious escalation, he said.

Anticipating Pakistan's response, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, "The problem now becomes PM Imran Khan's commitment to his country - "Pakistan will not think about responding, Pakistan WILL respond". What shape will response take? Where will response be? Will India have to respond to Pakistan's response?"