Pakistan and India said Wednesday they had
shot down each other's warplanes, in a dramatic escalation of the
dangerous confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistan
said it downed two Indian jets in its airspace and captured two pilots,
but insisted it does not 'want to go towards war' with its neighbour.
India
confirmed the loss of one of its planes and said it had shot down a
Pakistani fighter jet, in a conflict played out over the skies of the
disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
In
a sign of the deepening crisis, Pakistan closed its airspace 'until
further notice'. At least six airports were shuttered in India, and a
vast area of airspace north of New Delhi was closed to civilian
flights.
Pakistan's Prime Minister
Imran Khan has since opened up for talks with Indian leaders over the
latest Kashmir clashes, saying: 'If escalation begins from here, where
will it go?'
Indian soldiers and Kashmiri
onlookers stand near the remains of an Indian Air Force (IAF)
aircraft
after it crashed in Budgam district in Indian-occupied Kashmir
Police officials in Indian-occupied
Kashmir said that two Indian pilots and a civilian had died after an
air force plane crashed, but would not confirm if the plane had been
shot down by Pakistani forces
Captured:
Photos shared on social media purports to show the moment when one of
the Indian Air Force pilots is arrested in Pakistani Kashmir
'Can
we afford any miscalculation with the kind of weapons that we have and
you have?' he said in a televised statement after both sides said they
had shot down each other's warplanes.
'I once again invite India to come to the negotiating table,' said Khan, who has called for dialogue with New Delhi in the past.
'Better sense should prevail,' he added, before alluding to the nuclear arsenal of both South Asian countries.
Khan also repeated the military's earlier
statement that it had shot down two Indian Air Force planes, which sent
tensions spiralling on Wednesday, fuelling fears of a fresh conflict
between India and Pakistan.
'Today we shot down two Indian MiGs which crossed our border,' he said, adding: 'Pilots are with us'.
Pakistani
authorities have maintained that both pilots are 'are being treated
well', however video footage of the capture of one of them, named as
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, shows him being beaten up by
civilians.
A subsequent video of what
is claimed to be Varthaman being interviewed by Pakistani forces has
since emerged online. It shows him blindfolded with his feet and hands
tied, and blood running down his face.
The
clip shows him giving his service number - 27981 - and confirming he is
a 'flying pilot', and telling his captors he is Hindu.
He
asks whether he is in the custody of the Pakistani Army and then
politely tells his captors he can't reveal any more information. In the
clip, he can be heard saying: 'I'm sorry sir, as per - that's all I'm
supposed to tell you.'
A Pakistani
military spokesman said that one of the downed Indian planes had fallen
in Pakistani-held Kashmir, while the other came down on the Indian side
of the heavily militarised de facto border dividing the territory.
'We
do not want escalation, we do not want to go towards war,' Major
General Asif Ghafoor told a press conference, calling for talks with New
Delhi.
One of the captured pilots was in custody and the other was in hospital, he said.
Ghafoor
said the jets had been shot down after Pakistani planes earlier flew
across the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, to the
Indian side in a show of strength, hitting non-military targets
including supply depots.
Afterwards, he said, the two Indian planes crossed the LoC into Pakistani airspace.
Source: dailymail
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