NEW AIR WAR - INDIA/PAKASTAN!!!

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Wed May 26 22:14:54 PDT 1999


Thursday May 27 1999 South China Morning Post

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.



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