Two weeks after the Pulwama terror attack, India on Tuesday crossed over Line of Control (LoC) and destroyed the JeM, LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen training camps at around 3:30 am. The Indian Air Force (IAF) used 12 Mirage aircraft and dropped 1000 kilograms of bombs on the terror launch pads across the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The last time IAF crossed the LoC and used the Mirage aircraft was during the 1971 war. Even during the 1999 Kargil war, the IAF had not crossed over to the LoC. The countries world over observe extreme caution when they decide to violate a foreign country's airspace as doing so is considered to be an act of war.

India strikes Pakistan LIVE Updates

Today, IAF did not just strike sites at Chikoti and Muzaffarabad close to the LoC, it also went deep inside the Pakistani territory to destroy the terror launch pads i.e., Balakot sector. In other words, India not just crossed LoC, it attacked Pakistan.

Pakistan on Tuesday claimed that IAF fighter jets crossed the LoC and returned after the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) scrambled war planes. Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Asif Ghafoor tweeted early Tuesday and Radio

Pakistan claimed that the IAF planes dropped payload in haste before leaving, which fell near Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The alleged incident took place in the Muzaffarabad sector, claimed Radio Pakistan.

The airstrike in Pakistan follows a suicide bombing attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama on February 14 that killed 40 troopers. </s> ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Wednesday (Feb 27) it shot down two Indian warplanes in its airspace over disputed Kashmir, in a dramatic escalation of a confrontation that has ignited fears of an all-out conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

One Indian pilot was captured, a Pakistani military spokesman said, adding that one aircraft had fallen in Pakistani-held Kashmir, while the other fell on the Indian side of the heavily militarised de facto border dividing the Himalayan territory.

Indian sources confirmed Pakistani fighter jets had violated airspace over Indian Kashmir, but said they were forced back over the LoC, and there was no immediate response to the claim the planes had been shot down.

The incident is the latest in a dangerous sequence of events between the two countries, whose ties have been under intense strain since a Feb 14 suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed 40 troops.

New Delhi had promised to act, and on Tuesday its warplanes flew into Pakistani airspace and struck what it said was a camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the militant group that claimed the Kashmir bombing.

It was India's first air strike on Pakistani soil since the neighbours fought a war in 1971 - when neither had nuclear weapons.

Islamabad, while denying the Indian strike caused any major damage or casualties, quickly vowed to retaliate, fuelling fears of a disastrous confrontation in South Asia.

"One Indian pilot arrested by troops on ground while two in the area," he added, without elaborating.

The Pakistani foreign office also released a statement saying that the air force "undertook strikes" on Wednesday - but said they were across the border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), in Indian Kashmir.

The foreign office did not elaborate on what it meant by "strikes" and did not mention shooting down planes.

It said the strikes were aimed at a "non military target", adding: "We have no intention of escalation".

Earlier on Wednesday, the Indian foreign minister sought to ease the situation by downplaying Tuesday's strike, repeating Indian claims that it had been a pre-emptive attack on JeM as the group planned further assaults.

"India does not wish to see further escalation of this situation. India will continue to act with responsibility and restraint," Sushma Swaraj said during talks in China with her counterparts from Beijing and Moscow.

The US, along with China and the European Union, have called for cooler heads to prevail.

"We encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after speaking with his counterparts from both countries.

Pompeo added that he stressed to Pakistan's foreign minister "the priority of de-escalating current tensions by avoiding military action, and the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil."

India had been vague over the exact location of Tuesday's strike, with analysts suggesting it was signalling to Pakistan that it does not want an all-out conflict.

Both sides have said that Indian warplanes penetrated as far as Balakot, a heavily forested region in northwestern Pakistan near the border with Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Balakot residents told AFP they heard explosions in the night, and that one person received minor injuries while no buildings were destroyed.

An AFP journalist who visited the site where the military and residents said the payload was dropped could see a large crater and trees snapped in half, and three mud houses, one with a collapsed wall, nearby.

The confrontation represents the first major foreign policy crisis for Pakistani premier Imran Khan, who is believed to be close to the powerful military and who came to power last year vowing to seek dialogue with New Delhi.

In a sign of how quickly the situation could spiral, Pakistan's military spokesman alluded to its nuclear arsenal Tuesday, saying that Khan had also convened a meeting Wednesday of the National Command Authority, the body which oversees its nuclear weapons.

Pakistan has denied involvement in the Kashmir bombing on February 14.

While India has consistently accused its neighbour of supporting extremist groups, Pakistan has equally vehemently denied any role in attacks in India and its only Muslim-majority state, Kashmir.

The Himalayan region has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. They have fought two of their three wars over the territory.

Previously, the US and other members of the international community have acted to defuse tensions.

"If I were Washington, I'd be in overdrive making phone calls and signalling that it wants tensions to be de-escalated now," said Moeed Yusuf, an expert at the US Institute of Peace in Washington.

"The risks of letting this play out are too great." </s> New Delhi, Feb 27: A day after Indian Air Force (IAF) crossed the Line of Control (LOC) on Tuesday morning, Pakistan on Wednesday exhibited aggression along the LOC that has created a war-like situation.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Tuesday announced that India conducted a major preemptive strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakote early Tuesday, killing a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers, and senior commanders.

He did not divulge details of the attack, but various reports said that as many as 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets of the Indian Air Force took part in the operation and 1,000 kgs bombs were dropped on terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC).

Also Read | How Indian Air Force took Pakistan by surprise and effectively struck at Balakot

IAF's action comes days after Jaish-e-Mohammed trained terrorist attacked a CRPF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar Highway in Pulwama on February 14 and killed 40 jawans, which raged India.

After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Indian forces have been given free hand to take suitable action, Pakistan was on high alert to avert any action by India. However, India's Tuesday action left Pakistan surprised.

By the Tuesday evening, Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate firing across the LOC resulting in the escalation of tension between the two countries.

On Wednesday, Pakistan claimed its Air Force shot down two Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace.

In a tweet, Director General ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor said one of the aircraft fell inside Azad Jammu and Kashmir while other fell inside Indian occupied Kashmir. Pakistan also claimed of arresting two Indian pilots.

Pakistan Army reportedly released a video in which a man was purportedly seen as saying that "I am Wing Commander Abhinandan, I am IAF officer. My service No is 27 981". It said that the second captured and injured Indian pilot was in a hospital and safe. However, there was no official confirmation from the Indian government.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Faisal was quoted by ANI as saying that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) undertook strikes across LoC from Pakistani airspace. The sole purpose of this action was to demonstrate our right, will, and capability for self-defence. We do not wish to escalate but are fully prepared if forced into that paradigm.

On the other hand, India said that Pakistan violated its airspace and it has destroyed a Pakistan's F-16 fighter jet.

"Pakistan Air Force's F-16 that violated Indian air space shot down in Indian retaliatory fire 3KM within Pakistan territory in Lam valley, Nowshera sector," reported ANI.

After Pakistan's aggression, Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held a high-level meeting in the Home Ministry and the situation along the India-Pakistan border.

Later, Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a review meeting at his office in which Doval is learnt to have briefed the Prime Minister about the current situation.

India heightened the security level inside the country and along the border. Eight airports have been closed as a precautionary measure. These airports are: Srinagar, Leh, Jammu, Amritsar, Pathankot, Dharamshala, Chandigarh, and Dehradun.

Also Read | How the Sukhoi 30 acted as a decoy as the Mirages struck at Balakot

The helicopter service at Vaishno Devi Shrine in Jammu has also been suspended.

The Army and Border Security Force (BSF) have also been put on the highest degree of alertness along the border.

The airspace of the northern India has been freed of commercial flights.

The Indian Air Force has asked its pilots to be ready for action within two minutes as and when required.

Indian commercial international flights have also been advised not to cross Pakistani airspace while en route to their destinations.

In another development, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that when the United States can enter Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden then why can't India do such operation in today's situation.

A sign of concern for Pakistan has been that China has not reacted the way it expected after India's non-military action in Pakistan.

China and Pakistan have friendly relations, but Beijing has asked India and Pakistan to maintain restraint.

Major airports in Pakistan have also been shut for commercial flights.

Meanwhile, with speculations of an approaching war, many Indians and Pakistanis have taken to social media to express their disapproval of the war. They were tweeting with hashtag #SayNotoWar. </s> According to the NDTV broadcaster, the Indian Air Force's planes prevented the Pakistani fighters from delivering precision strikes against ground targets on India-controlled disputed Kashmir regionEight fighter jets of the Indian Air Force took on 24 Pakistani jets in an unprecedented air combat over the India-controlled disputed Kashmir region, India's NDTV television reported on Thursday.According to the TV Channel, the Pakistani Air Force strike group included eight F-16s, four Mirage-3 aircraft and four Chinese-made JF-17 "Thunder" fighters. The other aircraft were escort fighters to protect the Pakistan strike formation from any retaliation."The large Pakistani attack formation was detected at 9.45 am, when they came within 10 km of the Line of Control," the TV Channel reported.The Pakistani aircraft were intercepted by eight jets of the Indian Air Force, which included four Sukhoi Su-30MKIs, two upgraded Mirage 2000s and two MiG 21 planes, the TV Channel reported.The Indian Air Force's planes prevented the Pakistani fighters from delivering precision strikes against ground targets on the India-controlled territory of the disputed Kashmir region, the TV Channel said.The details of the first massive air combat between the Indian and Pakistani fighters since the third Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 emerged as India waited for the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman from Pakistan's captivity.The wing commander was in pursuit of a Pakistani F-16 jet, which he shot down with an R-73 air-to-air missile."Both pilots were seen parachuting down on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control," the TV Channel said.At that moment, an AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) struck his aircraft, after which Varthaman was forced to eject and landed onto the Pakistani side of the Line of Control, where he was captured, the TV Channel said.The tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad heightened after an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14, which claimed the lives of 45 people. The Jaish-e-Mohammed group, which aims at separating Kashmir from India and bringing it under Pakistan's control, claimed responsibility for the February 14 attack.Last Tuesday, India delivered an air strike against the camp of that grouping in the Pakistan-controlled part of the Kashmir region. On Wednesday, the Pakistani Air Force retaliated by an air strike on Indian military installations. Both India and Pakistan claimed they had shot down each other's aircraft during the dogfight.The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, India's sole state with the predominantly Muslim population, has remained tense for many years. In the India-controlled part, secessionist militant groupings are active. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting terrorists. Pakistan rejects these accusations. </s> Today's surgical air strikes on the terror camp at Balakot deep inside Pakistan is unprecedented because it is the first time Indian AIr Force (IAF) has penetrated so deep into Pakistani territory in a peace-time operation. IAF jets crossed the LoC (Line of Actual Control), the entire Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and then hit the target inside Khyber Pakhtukhwa.Another daring raid inside Pakistani territory was carried out by the IAF during the Bangladesh war in 1971. Though it can't be called a surgical strike, the 1971 raid was an equally bold operation by four young Indian fighter pilots who penetrated into the enemy airspace. They were tasked to hit the enemy planes parked at Murid airbase in Pakistan.On December 8, 1971, Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj, Flying Officer VK Heble, Flying Officer BC Karambaya and Flight Lieutenant AL Deoskar flew Hunter jets to the Murid airbase located 120 kilometres inside Pakistan."We were a four-aircraft formation. Aircraft 1 and 2 went ahead on schedule. 3 and 4 were asked to delay their attack by a minute and a half. There was lot of ack ack fire in the sky. We broke radio silence and the lead aircraft told me 'I just clobbered a four-engine aircraft in the pen," BC Karambaya, who won a Vir Chakra in 1971 and retired several years later as a Wing Commander, was quoted as saying in an NDTV report."There was black all round. I saw what I thought were MiG-19s [infact, the Chinese F-6, a copy of the Russian MiG-19] in a blast pen. Deoskar spotted another. I fired a small burst - a refuelling bowser caught fire. I kept on firing and was at a height of only 300 feet and the aircraft started rocking - I had clearly been hit by ack ack fire. I said, 'I am ejecting.' As I was about to pull the handle [to eject], I realised I didn't want to become a prisoner of war. I kept flying low and then I saw the whole front right part of the wing and fuel tanks had been blown away but somehow the aircraft kept flying. There was very violent rocking. I just maintained my height and crossed the Indus and Sutlej into Indian territory," he said.According to the NDTV report, what Karambaya or the other pilots in the attack on Murid didn't know at the time was that they had just participated in perhaps the greatest offensive counter-air operation in the history of the IAF, the success of which has been highlighted in a new book 47 years after the 1971 war.In his new book, 'In The Ring and On Its Feet - Pakistan Air Force in the 1971 Indo-Pak war', Pakistan's premier military aviation historian Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail (retd.) has stated that IAF Hunters belonging to 20 Squadron destroyed 5 PAF F-86 Sabres on the ground in Murid. The F-86 wasn't just any fighter - the Sabre was the premier fighter of the Pakistan Air Force and the single biggest challenge for the Indian Air Force in air battles in both the 1965 and 1971 wars, a jet that shot down several IAF fighters in air-to-air combat and inflicted heavy damage to ground targets in Indian territory.Ironically, the official Ministry of Defence commissioned history of the Indian Air Force, published after the 1971 war, makes no claim on the destruction of the Sabres, claims the report.According to the report, the only reference to the December 8 mission is attributed to a book written by a former Pakistan Army Major General and says, "In two counter-air missions by the IAF, five aircraft were destroyed on the ground at Murid and Chaklala". </s> Pakistan is set to release a captured Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot today as "a peace gesture", but India yesterday indicated it was not in the mood for reconciliation, saying its military remains on "high alert" and reiterating that Pakistan was the aggressor.

The offer to release Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman came a day after the nuclear-armed neighbours exchanged heavy fire on the ground and in the air.

The pilot was captured by Pakistan following a dog fight between Indian and Pakistani air force jets on Wednesday in the worst escalation of tensions in nearly two decades and their first aerial combat since 1971.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday offered an unconditional release of the pilot, who has emerged as the human face of the conflict and triggered anger and concern in India for his safety.

"We have caught an India pilot, as a peace gesture we will release him," Mr Khan told Pakistan's Parliament yesterday, while warning that his efforts to de-escalate tensions should not be seen as a sign of "weakness".

"I am afraid of miscalculations. We should not even think of war, especially in view of the lethality of the weapons that we have," Mr Khan said.

But India, while thanking Islamabad for its decision to release the IAF pilot, revealed that its army, navy and air force were on "high state of preparedness". Indian officials also said that Pakistan was the aggressor and blamed it for launching air strikes on an Indian military installation. Pakistan has denied the accusation.

"There is high alert along the Line of Control. The mechanised forces are placed on standby. I wish to assure our nation we are fully prepared and there is a heightened state of preparedness," Major-General Surinder Singh Bahl of the Indian Army told a press briefing.

Navy Rear-Admiral D. S. Gujral said the Indian Navy "remains ready on surface, under sea and air" against Pakistan.

Hostilities between the two countries started rising after India launched air strikes against what it said was a terror camp belonging to the Jaish e Mohammed (JeM) group in Pakistan in retaliation for a terror attack in Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary soldiers. JeM had taken credit for the terror attack.

India on Wednesday had also shared a dossier consisting of what it said were "specific details of JeM complicity in the Pulwama terror attacks and the presence of JeM terror camps and its leadership in Pakistan", and that it had sought "verifiable action" from Pakistan.

In a further sign that India was not in the mood to back down, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is facing a general election in April or May, adopted an aggressive tone yesterday.

"When the enemy tries to destabilise India through a terrorist attack, their motive is also to stop the progress of the country. We have to stand like a wall against their motives," he said during a video conference address to members of his Bharatiya Janata Party.

"The country has a new confidence," he added.

Mr Modi did not directly respond to an offer for dialogue from Mr Khan.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, and have struggled with their bilateral relations.

New Delhi and Islamabad signed a ceasefire agreement in 2003 but have continued to exchange fire from time to time along the Line of Control or the de facto border between the two countries. India has often blamed Pakistan for using terror as a state policy and has predicated any bilateral dialogue on action against terror groups operating in Pakistan.

Pakistan, on its part, has maintained that Kashmir is the key issue between the two countries, a stance that has prevented any meaningful dialogue between their governments.

Analysts said the pilot's release would not de-escalate current tensions.

"I don't see any substantial change with the IAF pilot being returned," said Dr D. Suba Chandran of the National Institute of Advanced Studies.

"But with this, in Pakistan, Imran Khan is being projected as a statesman and Modi as the aggressor. This is the strategy." </s> Pakistan has shot down two Indian warplanes over the disputed territory of Kashmir, one day after New Delhi launched an airstrike against a jihadist militant camp in the country, an armed forces spokesperson said today.

One plane went down on the Indian side of the border, and the pilot of the other plane was captured by Pakistani troops, Major General Asif Ghafoor said.

Police officials in Indian-occupied Kashmir said that two Indian pilots and a civilian had died after an Indian air force plane crashed in Kashmir, but did not confirm if the plane had been shot down by Pakistani forces.

Pakistan's foreign ministry says the country's Air Force is carrying out airstrikes against Indian Kashmir from within Pakistani airspace, but claimed that this was not in 'retaliation to continued Indian belligerence'.

The ministry said the strikes on Wednesday are aimed at 'avoiding human loss and collateral damage.'

It says the Pakistanis have 'no intention of escalation, but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm. That is why we undertook the action with clear warning and in broad daylight.'

Indian officials said three Pakistani jets had also entered Indian airspace, before being intercepted and forced turned back.

Tensions between the two nuclear armed rivals have been elevated since a suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on February 14.

The risk of conflict rose dramatically after India launched an air strike on what it said was a training base for the Jaish-e-Mohammed jihadist militant group that claimed credit for the suicide attack in Pakistan's Balakot region on Tuesday.

But while India said a large number of JeM fighters had been killed, Pakistani officials said the Indian airstrike was a failure and inflicted no casualties.

The Indian air force has ordered Kashmir's main airport in Srinagar along with at least three others in neighboring states to be closed because of the two incidents, an official said.

On Tuesday evening, Pakistan began shelling using heavy calibre weapons in 12 to 15 places along the de facto border in Kashmir, known as the Line of Control (LoC), a spokesman for the Indian defence forces said.

'The Indian Army retaliated for effect and our focused fire resulted in severe destruction to five posts and number of casualties,' the spokesman said.

Five Indian soldiers suffered minor wounds in the shelling that ended on Wednesday morning, he added.

'So far there are no (civilian) casualties but there is panic among people,' said Rahul Yadav, the deputy commissioner of the Poonch district where some of the shelling took place.

'We have an evacuation plan in place and if need arises we will evacuate people to safer areas,' he said.

Local officials on the Pakistani side said at least four people had been killed and seven wounded, though it was unclear if the casualties were civilian or military.

India has also continued its crackdown on suspected militants operating in Kashmir, a mountainous region that both countries claim in full but rule in part.

On Wednesday, security forces killed two Jaish militants in a gun battle, Indian police said.

Pakistan has promised to retaliate to Tuesday's air strikes, and security across India has been tightened. The two countries have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947 and went to the brink a fourth in 2002 after a Pakistani militant attack on India's parliament.

In Mumbai, India's financial capital, there was a visible increase in security levels for a city that has suffered numerous militant attacks in the past.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke separately with the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan and urged them to avoid 'further military activity' following Tuesday's airstrike.

'I expressed to both ministers that we encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost,' Pompeo said in a statement on Wednesday.

'I also encouraged both ministers to prioritize direct communication and avoid further military activity,' he said.

Both China and the European Union have also called for restraint. On Wednesday New Zealand's foreign minister Winston Peters also voiced concern over the escalation in tensions. </s> ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's prime minister pledged on Thursday his country would release a captured Indian jetfighter pilot the following day, a move that could help defuse the most-serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Imran Khan made the announcement in an address to both houses of Parliament, saying he tried to reach his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Wednesday with a message that he wants to de-escalate tension.

There was no immediate reaction from India, though Modi earlier in the day warned that "India's enemies are conspiring to create instability in the country through terror attacks."

"We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow," Khan told lawmakers. He did not say whether the release was conditional.

The Pakistani premier also said that he had feared Wednesday night that India might launch a missile attack, but the situation was later defused. He did not elaborate.

World powers have called on the nations to de-escalate the tensions gripping the contested region since a Feb. 14 suicide bombing killed over 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir in territory it controls. India responded with a pre-dawn airstrike on Tuesday inside Pakistan, the first such raid since the two nations' 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.

The situation then escalated further with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, which saw Pakistan say it shot down two Indian aircraft, one of which crashed in Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan later aired a video of a man it identified as the Indian pilot.

India acknowledged one of its MiG-21s, a Soviet-era fighter jet, was "lost" in skirmishes with Pakistan. India's Ministry of External Affairs said late Wednesday that it "strongly objected to Pakistan's vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force," and that it expects his immediate and safe return.

India also said it shot down a Pakistani warplane, something Islamabad denied.

Kashmir has been divided but claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after the two countries' creation in 1947. They have fought three wars against each other, two directly dealing with the disputed region.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday morning. There were no reported casualties.

Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, Ashok Sharma and Emily Schmall in New Delhi, Roshan Mughal in Muzafarabad, Pakistan, Adam Schreck in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. </s> The cross-border action inflicted significant casualties, the Indian army's head of operations told reporters in New Delhi, while a senior government official said Indian soldiers had crossed the border to target militant camps.

Pakistan said there had been no such targeted strikes, but some military officers said it had repulsed the Indian troops and returned fire across the Line of Control, the de facto frontier that runs through the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The Indian announcement followed through on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's warning that those responsible "would not go unpunished" for a Sept. 18 attack on an Indian army base at Uri, near the frontier, that killed 18 soldiers.

The strikes also raised the possibility of a military escalation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan that would wreck a 2003 Kashmir ceasefire.

Lt General Ranbir Singh, the Indian army's director general of military operations, said the strikes were launched on Wednesday based on "very specific and credible information that some terrorist units had positioned themselves ... with an aim to carry out infiltration and terrorist strikes".

Singh said he had called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him of the operation.

The top spokesman for the Pakistani military slammed the Indian account of its action as "totally baseless and completely a lie".

"We deny it. There is no such thing on the ground. There is just the incident of the firing last night, which we responded to," Lt General Asim Bajwa told news channel Geo TV.

Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed and nine wounded in firing across the Line of Control.

The Indian version of events represents a departure from a traditional policy of strategic restraint in the face of what New Delhi sees as cross-border terrorist acts that it believes are sponsored by the Pakistani state.

"The bigger message is that Pakistan is now on notice that cross-border attacks would be part of our response if there are any more terrorist attacks," said former Indian air vice marshal Manmohan Bahadur.

It also comes at a particularly delicate time for Pakistan, with powerful Army Chief of Staff General Raheel Sharif due to retire shortly and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif still to decide on a successor.

The Pakistani premier condemned what he called India's "unprovoked and naked aggression" and called a cabinet meeting on Friday to discuss further steps.

Share markets in India and Pakistan fell on India's announcement. India's NSE index was down 1.6 percent at 0958 GMT (5.58 a.m. ET) after falling as much 2.1 percent to its lowest since Aug. 29, while Pakistan's benchmark 100-share index was down 0.12 percent.

India announced its retaliation at a news conference in New Delhi that was hurriedly called, only to be delayed, as Modi chaired a meeting of his cabinet committee on security to be briefed on the operation.

"The prime minister is clear that this is exactly what we should have done," a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Informing the world about the surgical strike was important today."

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice spoke with her Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, before news of the Indian cross-border operation broke, the White House said.

Rice discussed deepening collaboration between the United States and India on counter-terrorism and urged Pakistan to combat and delegitimise individuals and entities designated by the United Nations as terrorists.

Exchanges of fire took place in the Bhimber, Hot Spring, Kel and Lipa sectors in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and lasted about six hours, the Pakistani military said earlier.

An Indian army officer in Kashmir said there had been shelling from the Pakistani side of the border into the Nowgam district, near the Line of Control, and the exchange of fire was continuing.

There were no casualties or damage reported on the Indian side of the frontier.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full, but govern separate parts, and have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Tension between the South Asian rivals has been high since an Indian crackdown on dissent in Kashmir following the killing by security forces of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July.

They rose further when New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the Uri attack, which inflicted the heavies toll on the Indian army of any single incident in 14 years.

India has been ratcheting up pressure on Pakistan, seeking to diplomatically isolate it at the U.N. General Assembly in New York and winning expressions of condemnation from the United States, Britain and France over the attack.

China, another of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and a traditional ally of Pakistan, has urged dialogue between the two antagonists.

On Wednesday, officials from several countries said a November summit of a the South Asian regional group due to be held in Islamabad may be called off after India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan said they would not attend.
The attack is the first time since Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 that the Indian Air Force has crossed and attacked Pakistan beyond the line of control. As well as the first time since both countries have acquired nuclear weapons.