Pakistani police withdraw vehicles and people from the main entrance to Nur Khan air base following an Indian missile strike in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Saturday.
Anjum Naveed / AP
hide
tilting legend
Anjum Naveed / AP
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan said that India had fired missiles on three air bases inside the country on Saturday, but most missiles were intercepted and that India reprisals were underway. This is the last climbing of a conflict triggered by a massacre last month that India blames Pakistan.
The Pakistani army said it used medium -range Fateh missiles to target an Indian missile storage installation and air bases in Pathankot and Udhampur. There was no way to independently check all the actions allocated to Pakistan or India.
The army spokesman, Lieutenant-General Ahmad Sharif, said that Air Force active in Pakistan were safe after Indian strikes, adding that some of the Indian missiles also hit the eastern punjab of India.
“This is a highest level provocation,” said Sharif. There was no immediate comment from India.
Pakistan television managed by the State has announced that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has summoned a meeting of the National Command Authority, the organization responsible for supervising the country’s missile program and other strategic assets.
Tensions between nuclear weapons rivals have soaked since a popular tourist site in cashmere controlled by India left 26 dead civilians, mainly Hindu Indian tourists on April 22. New Delhi reproached Pakistan for supporting the assault, an accusation of Islamabad rejects.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Friday with the Pakistani army chief Asim Murnir.
The spokesman for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, said that Rubio continued to urge both parties to “find means to be in exemption and offered us assistance to start constructive talks” in order to avoid future conflicts.
The call to CALM was before the Indian missile strikes on Saturday, which targeted Nur Khan’s air base in the city of Garrison de Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, the Murid air base in Chakwal City and the Rafiqui air base in the Jhang district, in the province of Punjab, according to the military spokesman for Pakistan.
There was no media access to the air base in Rawalpindi, a densely populated city, and no immediate report of residents hearing or seeing the strike or its consequences.
After the announcement of Pakistani reprisals, residents of cashmere under Indian control said they had heard noisy explosions in several places in the region, including the two major cities of Srinagar and Jammu, and the city of Garrison d’Udhampur.
“The explosions we hear today are different from those we have heard the last two nights during drone attacks,” said Shesh Paul Vaid, former senior police officer in the region and Jammu resident. “It looks like a war here.”
Vaid said explosions have been heard in military bases, adding that it seemed like the army sites were targeted.
Srinagar seemed calm early Saturday, but some residents of the neighborhoods near the city’s airport, which is also an air base, said that they had been shaken by explosions and the booming sound of fighter planes.
“I was already awake but the explosions sang my children from their sleep. They started to cry,” said Mohammed Yasin, a Srinagar resident, adding that he had heard at least two explosions.
Praveen Quali, principal analyst of the Group Crisis International for India, said that the two countries were at war even if they had not yet qualified him as.
“It has become a breed without remorse for a military increase without objectives of apparent strategic finish on each side,” said QUISHI. “With the increase in civilian victims on both sides, finding an exit or an exit ramp will be difficult.”
The army of India said that it has destroyed several armed Pakistani drones that were spotted on a military cantonment in the city of Amritsar in the northern Punjab early on Saturday.
“Pakistan’s blatant attempt to violate India’s sovereignty and endanger civilians is unacceptable.” the press release.
In Pakistan, civil aviation Authority closed the country’s airports for all flight operations and the inhabitants of major cities were seen singing slogans supporting the armed forces.
“Thank goodness, we finally responded to the Indian assault,” said Muhammad Ashraf, who headed for breakfast in the eastern city of Lahore.
The Indian army said on Friday evening that drones had been seen in 26 places in many regions of the Indian states bordering Pakistan and the cashmere controlled by India, including Srinagar. He said drones were followed and committed.
“The situation is under close and constant surveillance, and rapid measures are taken wherever necessary,” added the press release.
India and Pakistan have exchanged strikes and heavy cross -border shots for days, causing civilian victims on both sides.
The group of seven nations, or G7, urged the “maximum restraint” of India and Pakistan. He warned on Friday that a new military escalation was a serious threat to regional stability.
