Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan warns of nuclear war with India after both sides shoot down warplanes and Kashmir crisis escalates
- Pakistani PM Imran Khan calls for talks with India in a national TV address, as he raises the spectre of a ‘miscalculation’ triggering nuclear war
- His military meanwhile parades a man believed to be a captured Indian pilot
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan called for talks with India and warned of miscalculations that could lead to nuclear war in a national television address on Wednesday, hours after his nation’s air force claimed to have shot down two Indian warplanes and captured a pilot.
The warning and overture came amid flaring tensions between the nuclear-armed nations that started Tuesday when the Indian Air Force made what is believed to be its first incursion over Pakistani territory in decades to bomb a militant training camp. India said the camp belonged to a terrorist group responsible for killing 40 Indian paramilitary troops in the disputed Kashmir region two weeks ago.
After promising to retaliate for the incursion, Pakistan said it downed two Indian military planes that crossed the so-called Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, into Pakistani airspace Wednesday.
One of the aircraft fell into Indian-controlled territory while the other crashed onto the Pakistani side, where the pilot was captured. Purported video of the airman – bloodied, blindfolded and with his hands tied behind his back – has been shared online. Pakistan identified him as Wing Commander Abhinandan.
“We waited and today we took action,” Khan said in a short address. “It was our plan to not cause any collateral damage and not to cause any casualties. We simply wanted to show our capability.”
