Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Meanwhile Pakistan and India are ramping up "hostilities"

As many as 25 top commanders have been killed in the airstrike carried out by India on Jaish-e-Mohammed's (JeM) biggest training camp in Balakot, Pakistan, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval told the members of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), on Tuesday.

The airstrike was conducted 12 days after the terroist group killed 40 Indian soldiers in a suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama.

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In response, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said Pakistan reserved the right to react.

  India Today
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has promised to retaliate against India after it conducted airstrikes on an alleged terrorist training camp across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between India and Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region, in a significant escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear armed powers.

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The apparent strike took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning

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Harsh V. Pant, a professor in international relations at King's College London, told CNN that for the past few decades the Indian government had chosen not to retaliate after terror attacks in Kashmir.

But India is now at a point where it is choosing to escalate the situation, he said.

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Tuesday's movement of Indian Air Force planes across the de facto border between the two countries is the first such instance since the India-Pakistan war in 1971, Pant said.

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A spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces tweeted that Indian military aircraft crossed into Pakistan airspace, but were driven back.

Pakistan Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor alleged that Indian jets crossed the LoC and were pushed back by Pakistan Air Force jets that were "scrambled" to the scene.

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In a statement released Tuesday, India said "a very large number" of militants were "eliminated" in the operation. It said the alleged camp was a military training facility headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar, the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar -- the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Pakistan denied that numerous militants had been killed, calling it "a self serving, reckless and fictitious claim" by the Indian government, according to the statement from Khan's office.

[...]

Following the attack, India promised retaliation, including commercial and diplomatic steps to "isolate" Pakistan internationally.

"There has been diplomatic outreach [by India] to various countries," Pant told CNN. He said India's military action follows public anger over the attack.

Pakistan has vehemently denied having a role in the incident.

China called on both countries to "exercise restraint" after news of the airstrikes broke.

  CNN
The European Union (EU) has called for 'maximum restraint' from India, Pakistan after the airstrike, reported AFP.

France has also called for restraint but also supported India's "legitimacy to ensure security" and asked Pakistan "to put an end to the operations of terrorist groups established on its territory".

The Australian government also urged Pakistan to take "urgent and meaningful action against terrorist groups in its territory.

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China, too, asked India to "exercise restraint" at this crucial hour.

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Foreign diplomats from USA, UK, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey and six Asean nations have been briefed by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on the airstrike in Balakot.

  India Today
So far, silence from the U.S.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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