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> The airstrikes hit a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the group that claimed credit for a suicide car bomb attack killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on Feb. 14, ratcheting up tensions between the two nuclear armed neighbours.

The action was ordered as India said it had intelligence that Jaish was planning more attacks.

"In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary," Vijay Gokhale, India's top diplomat, told reporters.

"The existence of such training facilities, capable of training hundreds of jihadis could not have functioned without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities," Gokhale said.

Pakistan denies harbouring JeM, a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and has been on a UN terror list since 2001. In December 2001, Jaish fighters, along with members of another Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, launched an attack on India's parliament, which almost resulted in the two countries coing to war for a fourth time.

Gokhale said "a very large number" of militants were killed in a strike on a training base in Balakot, a town in a remote valley in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but did not provide a precise figure for the casualties.

The commander of the camp was Maulana Yusuf Azhar, a brother-in-law of JeM leader Masood Azhar, Gokhale said.

A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes. But no details were provided.

Pakistan downplayed the severity of airstrike, saying its own warplanes had chased off the Indian aircraft, which had released their "payload" in a forested area, causing no casualties and no serious material damage.

"Indian aircrafts intruded from Muzaffarabad sector," Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter early on Tuesday, referring to an area in the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir.

Ghafoor said "facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force", the Indian aircraft "released payload in haste, while escaping, which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage".

Saying that more information would be released, Ghafoor tweeted four pictures of the alleged site where Indian aircraft dropped a payload near Balakot, purportedly showing a bomb crater in a forest area but no serious damage.

Pakistani villagers in the area where the Indian jets struck said they heard four loud bangs in the early hours of Tuesday but reported only one person was wounded.

"We saw fallen trees and one damaged house, and four craters where the bombs had fallen," said Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that "better sense" should prevail, warning India not to challenge Pakistan.

While Gokhale did not comment on the status of the camps, India's minister of state for agriculture, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said on Twitter on Tuesday they had been "completely destroyed".

Indian television networks reported the airstrikes took place at 3.30 am.

Mohammed Iqbal, a resident of Mendhar, on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC), told Reuters that he heard jets flying through the night.

Balakot is about 50 km (30 miles) from LoC, the ceasefire line that is the de facto border in Kashmir, a Himalayan region that has been the cause of two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

Analysts have alleged Pakistani militants have their training camps in the area, although Pakistan has always denied the presence of any such camps.

Indian markets fell on Tuesday amid concerns over increased tensions with Pakistan. The rupee weakened to 71.16 per dollar compared with Monday's close of 70.9850.

The 10-year benchmark bond yield rose to 7.61 percent compared with 7.58 percent on Monday, while the broader NSE stock index declined 1.17 percent.

Shelling across the LoC has occurred frequently over the past few years but airspace violations by jets are extremely rare.

New Delhi said in 2016, following another large attack on Indian security forces in Kashmir, that its troops crossed the LoC to carry out a "surgical strike" on suspected militant camps in Pakistan Kashmir. Islamabad denied anything serious occurred.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, facing a tight election in the next couple of months, has vowed a strong response to the Feb. 14 attack, the deadliest single assault on Indian forces in 30 years of insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan denied his country was involved and offered to help investigate the attack if any credible evidence was provided. </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> The footage depicts a terrifying night time activity as fighters leap through a wall of flame in staggered groups as crowds cheer and a speaker blasts out on a megaphone. The camp was allegedly run by terrorist group Jaish e Mohammed and located at the Jaba Top, near Balakot in Pakistan. India said its warplanes killed "a very large number" of fighters when they struck the militant training camp inside Pakistan on Tuesday, raising the risk of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours, although Pakistan officials denied there had been casualties.

Pakistan said it would respond at a time and place of its choice, with a military spokesman even alluding to its nuclear arsenal, highlighting the escalation in hostile rhetoric from both two sides since a suicide bombing in Kashmir this month. The spokesman said a command and control authority meeting, which decides over the use of nuclear weapons, had been convened for Wednesday, adding: "You all know what that means." The air strike near Balakot, a town 50 km (30 miles) from the frontier, was the deepest cross-border raid launched by India since the last of its three wars with Pakistan in 1971 but there were competing claims about any damage caused. Jaish e Muhammad was the group that claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on Feb. 14.

The government said the action was ordered as India said it had intelligence that Jaish was planning more attacks. Pakistani officials dismissed the Indian claims, saying the Indian aircraft had dropped their bombs in a wooded area, causing no damage or casualties. Villagers near the town of Balakot were shaken from their sleep by the air strikes. They said only one person was wounded in the attack and they knew of no fatalities. JeM is a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and has been on a U.N. terrorist list since 2001. Former Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, has accused India of “calling out war” amid escalating tensions in Kashmir. She said: “This was in some way you could consider it to be a retaliatory action for the aggression that was imposed on Pakistan in the early hours of the morning yesterday. “As we all know we are all bound by the UN charter, which protects our international boundaries, which protects our sovereign integrity. “India is claiming to come within Pakistani airspace and therefore inside our international border, disrespecting it, and taking action against what it allegedly called camps and we have evidence we have shown to both local and foreign journalists, and everyone else is welcome to come. It was just plain ground that India put its payload on before exiting Pakistani airspace. “That is what I would call a very very inflammatory action, and frankly speaking, is calling out war.”

Pakistan and India 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. In December 2001, Jaish fighters, along with members of another Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, attacked India's parliament, which almost led to a fourth war. Two Indian Air Force warplanes were shot down escalating tensions between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir conflict. In the shocking video footage, crowds gathered around a jet on fire - believed to be one of the Indian warplanes. The Pakistani foreign ministry said: "Today, Pakistan Air Force undertook strikes across Line of Control from within Pakistani airspace." Indian warplanes entered Pakistani airspace on Wednesday after Pakistan had carried out airstrikes in Indian-occupied Kashmir, a spokesman for the Pakistan armed forces claimed. Ghafoor added that one aircraft fell on India’s side of the Kashmir, while the second came down in Pakistani-held territory, and said its pilot was captured. </s> Top officials on Wednesday said one Pakistan Air Force's F-16 jet that violated Indian air space in Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district was shot down in retaliatory firing, three kilometres within Pakistan territory in Lam valley, along the Line of Control.

The jets were immediately pushed back by Indian aircraft on air patrol, a top official has said. Police sources have also said that Pakistani jets dropped bombs on their way out at Nadian, Lam Jhangar, and Kerri in Rajouri district and Hamirpur area of Bhimber Galli in Poonch of the Indian territory.

A parachute was spotted going down across the Line of Control but the condition of the PAF pilot is not known.

This action comes a day after the Indian Air Force carried out air strikes in the wee hours of Tuesday morning on Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps in Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Chakoti.

Pakistan military, in the meanwhile, has claimed to have arrested an Indian pilot after shooting down two IAF aircraft. Major General Asif Ghafoor, the head of the media wing of Pakistan’s military, claimed in a tweet that one of the aircraft fell in Jammu and Kashmir, while the other fell in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He also claimed that the Indian Air Force had crossed the Line of Control once again on Wednesday morning.

The Indian jets are still patrolling the area.

Where is Nowshera and Lam valley?

Soon as reports about the Pakistani fighter jet spread, there were confusions about where exactly was Nowshera and Lam valley. Nowshera, where the air space violation took place, is in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, about 10 kilometre North of Srinagar's Lal Chowk. It lies close to the LoC. This shouldn't be confused with Nowshera, the primary city in Nowshera district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Lam Valley, on the other hand, lies in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). Places near Lam Valley include Jhangar, Nadian, Kerri, Mendhar, Bhimber Galli in Poonch and other places.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Pakistani warplane was shot down by the Indian Air Force after it attempted to target military establishments in Jammu and Kashmir.

It was earlier reported that three Pakistani Air Force jets attempted to violate the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch and Nowshera sectors but were chased away by Indian combat air patrol team of Sukhoi SU-30s.

The Pakistan government later claimed in a statement that its air force undertook strikes on the Indian side of the Line of Control “from within Pakistani airspace” and for "self-defence". It denied that the F-16 was shot down.

Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button. </s> India on Thursday strongly rejected any probability of a deal with Pakistan to secure the return of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, the IAF pilot captured by Pakistan, and insisted on his immediate return, government sources said on Thursday.

The sources said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has to walk the talk on investigating the deadly Pulwama attack and that India wants immediate, credible and verifiable action against terrorists and their proxies.

"India has not asked for any consular access to the IAF pilot. We want him back immediately," a source told a news agency.

Meanwhile, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said, "We are willing to return the captured Indian pilot if it leads to de-escalation. Prime Minister Imran Khan is ready to hold a telephonic conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Denouncing Pakistan's breach of the Line of Control, they said their air force "specifically targeted Indian military facilities, while we targeted only Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp".

Tensions between India and Pakistan are at an all-time high since the February 14 attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama that left 40 paramilitary troopers dead. On February 26, the Indian Air Force carried out a pre-dawn airstrike deep inside Pakistan's territory in Balakot. The government of India officially called it an "intelligence-led, non-military, pre-emptive action".

The airstrike significantly heightened tensions between India and Pakistan which worsened on February 27, when Pakistani jets and Indian fighters had an aerial confrontation over Jammu and Kashmir. Indian Air Force's MiG-21 fighter jets managed to shoot down a Pakistani jet, something that Islamabad refused.

However, an Indian fighter jet was also "lost" in the confrontation, the government said, and its pilot was "missing in action", as per reports. </s> BALAKOT, Pakistan/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India said its warplanes killed “a very large number” of fighters when they struck a militant training camp inside Pakistan on Tuesday, raising the risk of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors, although Pakistan officials denied there had been casualties.

Pakistan said it would respond at a time and place of its choice, with a military spokesman even alluding to its nuclear arsenal, highlighting the escalation in hostile rhetoric from both two sides since a suicide bombing in Kashmir this month.

The spokesman said a command and control authority meeting, which decides over the use of nuclear weapons, had been convened for Wednesday, adding: “You all know what that means.”

The air strike near Balakot, a town 50 km (30 miles) from the frontier, was the deepest cross-border raid launched by India since the last of its three wars with Pakistan in 1971 but there were competing claims about any damage caused.

The Indian government, facing an election in the coming months, said the air strikes hit a training camp belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the group that claimed a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on Feb. 14.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said “a very large number” of militants were killed in the strikes in northeast Pakistan.

“The existence of such training facilities, capable of training hundreds of jihadis, could not have functioned without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities,” Gokhale said. Pakistan denies harboring JeM.

A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes and that the warplanes had ventured as far as 80 km (50 miles) inside Pakistan. But no evidence was provided to back up the claims of casualties.

The government said the action was ordered as India said it had intelligence that Jaish was planning more attacks.

Pakistani officials dismissed the Indian claims, saying the Indian aircraft had dropped their bombs in a wooded area, causing no damage or casualties.

Villagers near the town of Balakot were shaken from their sleep by the air strikes. They said only one person was wounded in the attack and they knew of no fatalities.

“We saw fallen trees and one damaged house, and four craters where the bombs had fallen,” said Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site.

A resident, who did not want to give his name, said there was a nearby madrasa Islamic college run by Jaish, though most villagers were guarded in talking about any militant neighbors.

JeM is a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and has been on a U.N. terrorist list since 2001. In December 2001, Jaish fighters, along with members of another Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, attacked India’s parliament, which almost led to a fourth war.

HOSPITALS ON ALERT

There has been mounting impatience in India to avenge the Feb. 14 attack, which was the most deadly seen in Kashmir during an insurgency that has lasted three decades, and as news of the raid broke, celebrations erupted across the country.

India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale speaks during a media briefing in New Delhi, India, February 26, 2019. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

“I want to assure you our country is in safe hands,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said to cheers at a rally in western India hours after the raid. “I won’t let the country down.”

Pakistan’s top civilian and military leaders rejected India’s comments that it had struck a “terrorist camp” inside Pakistan, warning that they would retaliate.

Pakistan’s National Security Committee (NSC), comprising top officials including Prime Minister Imran Khan and army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Khan would “engage with global leadership to expose irresponsible Indian policy”. It also warned that “Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing” to Indian aggression.

China, Pakistan’s long-time ally, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged both countries to exercise restraint.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement issued in Washington that he had talked to Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi separately and encouraged both countries to “exercise restraint ... and avoid further military activity.”

He said he had underscored to Qureshi “the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil.”

Swaraj said she had spoken to Pompeo and Indian diplomats had met foreign ambassadors to assure them no escalation was planned.

But as fears grew that the conflict could escalate, hospitals in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were ordered to set a quarter of beds aside for “a national cause”, officials said.

“We put all hospitals in the province on high alert due to the present situation on the border with India and issued directives to all heads of the hospitals to be prepared for any sort of emergency,” provincial secretary health Dr Farooq Jameel told Reuters.

Slideshow (3 Images)

Indian and Pakistan troops exchanged gunfire along several sectors of their contested border in Kashmir later on Tuesday and local officials on the Pakistani side said at least four people had been killed and seven wounded.

Giving the Pakistan military’s account of the Indian incursion, spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said Pakistani aircraft were patrolling and identified Indian jets on the Indian side of the border near Okara and Lahore in Punjab as well as Muzaffarabad where they crossed and were engaged. They left Pakistani airspace after only four minutes.

He denied the incursion had caused any damage, saying there was no debris, “not even a single brick” and no casualties.

“You have proved you are not a democracy, you have chosen the path of war,” he said, addressing his remarks to India. </s> NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India said its warplanes struck a militant training camp inside Pakistan on Tuesday, raising the risk of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The airstrikes hit a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the group that claimed credit for a suicide bomb attack that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on Feb. 14.

WHERE DID THE ATTACK TAKE PLACE?

The Indian air force attacked the hillside camp of JeM in Balakot in Pakistan more than 50 km (30 miles) from the border.

Balakot is about 60 km north of Abottabad, the hideout of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed there by U.S. forces in May 2011.

The terrain in the region is mountainous, which would have helped Indian planes take cover and hide from radar.

WHAT TIME DID THE STRIKE TAKE PLACE?

The strike took place between 3:45 a.m. and 4:04 a.m. Indian time on Tuesday, a time when the alertness of radar system operators is more likely to be lower, an air force veteran said.

WHAT EQUIPMENT DID INDIA USE FOR THE STRIKE?

India used 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets, an airborne early warning and control (AWAC) aircraft system, a mid-air refueller and drones.

The AWAC is typically used to jam an enemy’s radar. This can be done for a very short time until the enemy’s anti-radar technology kicks in, said a former Indian airforce pilot.

The drones would help with surveillance.

The attack on Balakot used 1,000 kg bombs which can devastate a large target.

WHAT WAS THE STRATEGY EMPLOYED?

Indian air force veterans said the mission would have taken meticulous planning to take advantage of the terrain.

“For such an operation, decoy and surveillance missions are conducted to figure out when the radars are on and off. No equipment works around the clock, 24/7,” a former air force pilot said.

The jets may have flown low, hugging the terrain as much as possible to avoid the radar, which face limitations due to the mountainous nature of the region.

“In general terms, for a radar located in the valley to look up, will have severe restrictions of view because of the mountains, however optimally you place them,” said a former Indian air force marshal.

WHAT RISKS DID THE INDIAN FORCES FACE?

If Tuesday’s mission had been discovered earlier by the Pakistan military it could easily have run into trouble.

Pakistan’s army and air force have a combined arsenal of more than 400 surface-to-air missiles, according to estimates from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Typically once they are alerted, it only takes about three minutes for fighter jets to respond on an incursion and get airborne, the former air marshal said.

In this case, it was likely the Pakistani security forces were only alerted after the strike, allowing Indian jets enough time to cross back into their own airspace. </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.
Pakistan reports that Indian military aircraft violated their airspace near Muzaffarabad and were intercepted by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) military aircrafts. Indian Air Force aircrafts in a haste dropped their payload which fell near balakot. India claims that the incident was an airstrike on a alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Balakot in retaliation to the Pulwama attack days earlier.