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Opinion | Will terrorist tensions in Kashmir drive India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war?
- How Islamabad responds to New Delhi’s ‘pre-emptive’ cross-border air strike will determine what the future holds for the nuclear-armed neighbours
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In the early hours of Tuesday morning, India launched an air strike on a target or targets in Pakistan. While there has been no official confirmation of the damage caused, according to speculative reports in the Indian media more than 200 militants were killed in a hailstorm of 1,000kg explosives that rained down from Mirage fighter jets on a major terrorist training facility in Balakot.
In an official statement, the Indian government would only say that a “very large number” of terrorists linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) group had been killed after what it described as a “non-military pre-emptive action” on a base believed to have been run by Yousuf Azhar, the brother-in-law of JeM chief Masood Azhar.
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JeM is the group that claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14 that led to the deaths of more than 40 paramilitary police officers.
Pakistan has rejected India’s claims, with Prime Minister Imran Khan even promising to take domestic and international media to the “claimed area of the strike” so that they can “see the facts on the ground”.
India’s air strike on Pakistan militant camp escalates tensions
Yet at the same time, Khan has also vowed a response to India’s “uncalled for aggression” that would be delivered “at the time and place of [Pakistan’s] choosing”.
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