Pakistan has rejected India’s claim that it killed many militants in an air strike, branding it “self-serving, reckless, and fictitious”.
Pakistan officials have said that Indian warplanes did breach its airspace and drop a payload over Balakot in the country’s northwest, but said there was no damage or casualties.
The escalation came after a February 14 suicide bombing claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohamed (JeM) that killed 40 troops in Indian Kashmir, setting off a chain of threats and counter-warnings between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan’s National Security Council “strongly rejected (the) Indian claim of targeting an alleged terrorist camp near Balakot and the claim of heavy casualties”, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a press conference in Islamabad.
“Once again (the) Indian government has resorted to a self-serving, reckless, and fictitious claim,” he said, adding that it had been done for domestic consumption ahead of the Indian general election.
He also called the violation an “uncalled for aggression to which Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing”.
Qureshi spoke after the Indian foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale, said in a briefing that Delhi had received credible intelligence that the JeM militant group was training fighters to stage further attacks.
“In the face of imminent danger, a pre-emptive strike became absolutely necessary,” Gokhale said.
A “very large number” of militants from the JeM were killed in the night-time attack, according to the Indian foreign ministry.
The attack was being celebrated with fanfare in India, but it was unclear yesterday whether anything significant had been struck by the fighter jets, or whether the operation had been carefully calibrated to ease popular anger over the February 14 bombing without drawing a major Pakistani reprisal.
Pakistan, which was the first to announce the incursion of Indian fighter jets early yesterday morning, has said the war planes only made it up to four miles inside its territory before they were rebuffed, dropping their payloads without casualties or damage.
Pakistan’s armed forces spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor, tweeted that the Indian jets had dropped their bombs in empty forested area.
“No infrastructure got hit, no casualties,” he wrote.
The conflicting narratives over the attack echo the September 2016 “surgical strikes”, in which India claimed to have sent special forces to destroy militant facilities over the ceasefire border – an attack that Pakistan still maintains never happened.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said the India’s “action has been done for domestic consumption in the election environment, putting regional peace and stability at grave risk”, referring to India’s general election, which starts in two months.
He said foreign and local journalists would be taken to the site of the alleged bombing “to see the facts on the ground”.
The army had been advised “to prepare for all eventualities”, Khan added.
Meanwhile, the EU has called on New Delhi and Islamabad to exercise “maximum restraint”.
“We remain in contact with both countries and what we believe is essential is that all exercise maximum restraint and avoid further escalation of tensions,” EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told reporters.
Though Pakistan downplayed the attacks, Prime Minister Khan, whose successful election campaign last year featured strident promises to stand up to India, could still face popular pressure to respond.
“Strategically, it is a disaster for Pakistan that India can keep doing this,” said Mosharraf Zaidi, a political analyst and columnist, referring to both yesterday’s attack and the September 2016 strikes.
“What does it say about Pakistan’s red lines that countries like India can keep violating our airspace or claim they have carried out surgical strikes?”
Senator Sherry Rehman, a former ambassador the US, said that the attack was aimed at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election.
“India is giving its own people a message with these strikes; this is for their electorate, the domestic voters,” she added.