Pakistan fury after India conducts military strikes on Kashmir border
India on attacks in Pakistan controlled Kashmir Play! 01:42
29 September 2016 • 9:37am
Indiasaid on Thursday it had launched military strikes on "terrorists" across the de facto border into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, an unprecedented move that would mark a major escalation between the two nuclear powers.
The strikes late on Wednesday night were in direct response to a recent attack on India’s Uri army base,
which left 18 soldiers dead and was blamed on Pakistan-backed militants, Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, India’s head of army operations, told reporters.
“Surgical strikes” on suspected terrorist “launch pads” in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir were designed to thwart further terrorist incursions, and caused “significant casualties” to terrorists and “those who are trying to support them”, he said.
New Delhi frequently accuses Islamabad of supporting anti-Indian militant groups.
Pakistan on Thursday sought to play down the incident, denying that any such strikes had taken place.
An Indian policeman fires a teargas shell towards demonstrators during a protest in Kashmir Credit: REUTERS
The Pakistan army’s media wing said two of its soldiers had been killed in overnight cross-border fire, but described the incident as a regular or “existential” phenomenon that New Delhi was seeking to portray in more dramatic terms to satisfy its own public.
“Indian army opened up small arm fire last night on five sectors across the line of control,” said
Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif, referring to the de facto border between the Indian and Pakistani controlled parts of Kashmir.
“If India tries to do this again we will respond forcefully. India is doing this only to please their media and public.”
In a statement from his office, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, "strongly condemned the unprovoked and naked aggression of Indian forces".
Villages close to the Pakistan border in Indian Punjab were told to prepare to evacuate on Thursday, while the public was banned from the Wagah border closing ceremony.
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has been under intense pressure from his own party and the Indian public to respond to the
Uri army base attack on September 18 - the worst strike on Indian troops for more than a decade.
Kashmir: 17 soldiers killed by militants at Indian army base Play! 00:47
Mr Modi came to power pledging to toughen India’s response to cross-border incursions from Pakistan.
He vowed earlier this month that the Uri raid “will not go unpunished”.
However, until Thursday Mr Modi had chosen a diplomatic response, by seeking to isolate Pakistan at the UN, withdrawing his country from the Islamabad-hosted regional SAARC summit, and publicly reviewing an important water-sharing treaty between the two countries.
The purported strikes on Pakistani-controlled Kashmir soil mark a dramatic departure from that strategy.
The exact nature and location of the strikes was not shared by Indian officials, although military sources said they took place up to two miles inside Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, on up to eight so-called “launch pads”, and involved Indian army special forces as well as ground troops.
Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan, but controlled in part by each.
Pakistan denies any role in the Uri army base attack.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...india-conducts-military-strikes-on-kashmir-b/