On Wednesday, Pakistan confirmed that it had carried out airstrikes in Indian-controlled Kashmir and shot down two Indian jets in its own airspace , capturing one of the pilots as the conflict with its nuclear-armed neighbor continued to escalate.
“Today, Pakistan Air Force undertook strikes across Line of Control from within Pakistani airspace,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Pakistan military said Indian jets had entered Pakistan in response and two had been shot down , with one pilot captured .
Pakistan had
“ no choice ” but to respond to India’s attack on its territory but did not want to escalate the crisis and avoided hitting military targets or causing casualties in an air strike earlier on Wednesday, the main military spokesman said.
Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor
, head of the military press wing, said Pakistani jets had locked on to six targets in a demonstration of their capacity to hit key installations but had deliberately avoided causing any damage.
“We engaged a nearby open space where there were no humans or military installation ,” he told a news conference in Islamabad .
sg
