Indian jets bomb Kashmir rebels
AGENCIES in Dras and Srinagar, India
Indian air force jets and helicopters fired on
Pakistan-backed guerillas in disputed Kashmir
yesterday.
Islamabad placed its armed forces on high
alert.
The attack, the first time air power has been
used on Muslim militants, marked the most
serious escalation of fighting in the region
since India and Pakistan tested nuclear
weapons last year.
Pakistan claimed aircraft had bombed its
territory, while India said the area in question
was six kilometres inside its boundary.
A Pakistan army spokesman said the country
was ready for "all eventualities".
"We think it is a very grave escalation and
Pakistan armed forces reserve the right to
respond," Brigadier Rashid Qureshi said.
A Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman called
on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to send
an envoy to the volatile region "for the
preservation of peace and security".
"Kashmir today is a nuclear flashpoint," he
said.
In New Delhi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman
said the air force operations were conducted
well inside Indian-held territory.
The Pakistani and Indian directors-general of
military operations talked by telephone last
night in an attempt to defuse tension.
Indian Air Force MiG-23 bombers and MI-17
helicopter gunships attacked the regions of
Kargil, Batalik, Dras and the Moshka Valley
in two waves from 6.30am.
Another wave was launched in the afternoon.
The Indian director of operations, Air
Commodore Subhash Bhojwani, said: "First
intelligence indicates the strikes were
effective."
But a spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Jihad
guerilla group said: "India attacked us by air
today, but we have suffered no losses. Thank
God our militants are safe."
He said reinforcements from one faction had
reached the area and more were on the way.
He claimed that his group was holding 500
square km of territory.
India said the attacks were aimed at "Afghan
mercenaries" supported by Pakistani forces.
The forces, numbering at least 600, had
moved into Indian-controlled territory since
May 9 under cover of Pakistani artillery fire,
and posed a threat to supply lines, officials
said.
"Operations will continue until our forces
re-occupy our territories," the Defence
Ministry said.
Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan
knew nothing about the infiltrators.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their
three wars over divided Kashmir. Both claim
all of the territory. India accuses Pakistan of
sending militants across the border.
A Pakistani army spokesman described
Indian allegations that elite troops were aiding
militants as "complete rubbish".
In Dras, army officers said the target of the
attack was a group of 70 infiltrators who had
entrenched themselves on snow-covered
slopes at a high altitude.
Weeks of mortar and heavy artillery
exchanges in Kargil and Dras had left at least
160 people dead, India said. Thousands have
fled.
The Indian military halted civilian flights in
and out of Srinagar and Jammu, the summer
and winter capitals of Jammu-Kashmir, and
took control of the only road linking Srinagar
to the rest of the country.
Heightened military tensions threaten to
undermine the spirit of detente that followed
February's historic summit in Lahore between
the countries' premiers.