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Pakistani soldiers by what Pakistan says is wreckage from a downed Indian jet
Pakistan says it has shot down two Indian military jets and captured a pilot in a major escalation between the nuclear powers over Kashmir.
India said it had lost one MiG-21 fighter and demanded the immediate and safe return of its pilot.
Pakistani PM Imran Khan said the two sides could not afford a miscalculation with the weapons they had.
India and Pakistan – both nuclear-armed states – claim all of Kashmir, but control only parts of it.
They have fought three wars since independence from Britain and partition in 1947. All but one were over Kashmir.
The aerial attacks across the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Indian and Pakistani territory are the first since a war in 1971.
They follow a militant attack in Kashmir which killed at least 40 Indian troops – the deadliest to take place during a three-decade insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir. A Pakistan-based group said it carried out the attack.
The BBC’s Soutik Biswas, in Delhi, says the challenge for India and Pakistan now is to contain the latest escalation before things get completely out of control.
What do we know about the situation?
Pakistan’s military spokesman said that Pakistan fighter jets had carried out “strikes” – exactly what they did remains unclear – in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday.
Two Indian air force jets then responded, crossing the de facto border that divides Kashmir. “Our jets were ready and we shot both of them down,” Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said.
He said that one Indian pilot was in the custody of the Pakistani army. Officials had previously said two pilots had been captured and one had been taken to hospital.
No explanation has been given as to why the numbers have changed.
Maj Gen Ghafoor said the captured Indian pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan, was being “treated as per norms of military ethics”.
Earlier Pakistan’s information ministry published but subsequently deleted a video showing the pilot – blindfolded and with blood on his face – identifying himself to soldiers.
Another video circulating on social media appeared to show the pilot being beaten by residents in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir before the arrival of Pakistani soldiers.
Pakistan’s information ministry also tweeted what it said was footage of one of the downed Indian jets.
BBC