Pakistan's top military chiefs meeting to discuss a response to a bombing raid by India - and have alluded to the country's nuclear capabilities.
India said its warplanes killed 'a very large number' of fighters when they struck a militant training camp inside Pakistan on Tuesday.
Pakistan has threatened its own 'surprise' after India claimed jets had bombed 'a very large' number of militants in its arch rival's territory.
Officials in New Delhi said overnight airstrikes had pounded a 'terror camp' belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in the Balakot region of Pakistan.
The raids took place after the jihadist group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed dozens of troops in Indian Kashmir earlier this month.
The strike raised the risk of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours, although Pakistan officials denied there had been casualties.
Pakistan said it would respond at a time and place of its choice, with a military spokesman even alluding to its nuclear arsenal, highlighting the escalation in hostile rhetoric from both two sides since a suicide bombing in Kashmir this month.
Indian jets have launched strikes on a militant camp in Pakistan territory with New Delhi claiming the raid killed a 'very large' number of fighters preparing an attack. Footage has emerged purportedly showing jets in the sky overnight
Warplanes pounded a camp belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad, the group that claimed a suicide bombing that killed dozens of troops in Indian Kashmir, the country's Foreign Secretary claimed. Pictured: Trees damaged by the raid today
The spokesman said a command and control authority meeting, which decides over the use of nuclear weapons, had been convened for Wednesday, adding: 'You all know what that means.'
The air strike near Balakot, a town 30 miles (50km) from the frontier, was the deepest cross-border raid launched by India since the last of its three wars with Pakistan in 1971 but there were competing claims about the damage it caused.
The Indian government, facing an election in the coming months, said the air strikes hit a training camp belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the group that claimed the suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on February 14.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said 'a very large number' of militants were killed in the strikes in northeast Pakistan.
'The existence of such training facilities, capable of training hundreds of jihadis, could not have functioned without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities,' Gokhale said. Pakistan denies harbouring JeM.
Pakistani protesters burn an Indian national flag during a demonstration in Peshawar today in the wake of the overnight airstrikes
The airstrikes took place in the Balakot region in Pakistani territory just days after a suicide bomb attack in Indian Kashmir
A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes and that the warplanes had ventured as far as 80 km (50 miles) inside Pakistan. But no evidence was provided to back up the claims of casualties.
The government said the action was ordered as India said it had intelligence that Jaish was planning more attacks.
Pakistani officials dismissed the Indian claims, saying the Indian aircraft had dropped their bombs in a wooded area, causing no damage or casualties.
Villagers near the town of Balakot were shaken from their sleep by the air strikes. They said only one person was wounded in the attack and they knew of no fatalities.
'We saw fallen trees and one damaged house, and four craters where the bombs had fallen,' said Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site.
A resident, who did not want to give his name, said there was a nearby madrasa Islamic college run by Jaish, though most villagers were guarded in talking about any militant neighbours.
JeM is a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and has been on a U.N. terrorist list since 2001. In December 2001, Jaish fighters, along with members of another Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, attacked India's parliament, which almost led to a fourth war.
There has been mounting impatience in India to avenge the February 14 attack, which was the most deadly seen in Kashmir during an insurgency that has last three decades, and as news of the raid broke, celebrations erupted across the country.
'I want to assure you our country is in safe hands,' Prime Minister Narendra Modi said to cheers at a rally in western India hours after the raid. 'I won't let the country down.'
Pakistan's top civilian and military leaders rejected India's comments that it had struck a 'terrorist camp' inside Pakistan, warning that they would retaliate.
Pakistan's National Security Committee (NSC), comprising top officials including Prime Minister Imran Khan and army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Khan would 'engage with global leadership to expose irresponsible Indian policy'.
It also warned that 'Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing' to Indian aggression.
China, Pakistan's long-time ally, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged both countries to exercise restraint.
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Indian diplomats met foreign ambassadors to assure them no escalation was planned.
But as fears grew that the conflict could escalate, hospitals in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were ordered to set a quarter of beds aside for 'a national cause', officials said.
'We put all hospitals in the province on high alert due to the present situation on the border with India and issued directives to all heads of the hospitals to be prepared for any sort of emergency,' provincial secretary health Dr Farooq Jameel told Reuters.
Indian and Pakistan troops exchanged gunfire along several sectors of their contested border in Kashmir later on Tuesday and local officials on the Pakistani side said at least four people had been killed and seven wounded.
Giving the Pakistan military's account of the Indian incursion, spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said Pakistani aircraft were patrolling and identified Indian jets on the Indian side of the border near Okara and Lahore in Punjab as well as Muzaffarabad where they crossed and were engaged. They left Pakistani airspace after only four minutes.
He denied the incursion had caused any damage, saying there was no debris, 'not even a single brick' and no casualties.
'You have proved you are not a democracy, you have chosen the path of war,' he said, addressing his remarks to India.
Amid deteriorating relations between the two neighbours, Pakistan this morning denied there had been casualties while President Arif Alvi warned against 'brinkmanship that can lead to war'.
Khan called India's claims 'self- serving, reckless and fictitious' before Major General Ghafoor warned it is now Islamabad's turn for a 'surprise', adding: 'Now it is your turn to wait for our response'.
New Delhi says Pakistani soldiers are firing mortar shells and small-arms fire along the boundary separating Pakistan's and India's sector of control in the disputed region.
China and the EU this morning called for restraint from both Islamabad and New Delhi to prevent a larger crisis.
Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, says Pakistani troops are carrying out an 'unprovoked' violation of the 2003 cease-fire along the so-called Line of Control by firing at the Nowshera, Poonch and Akhnoor sectors.
Anand said Indian soldiers are 'strongly and befittingly' responding to the multiple Pakistani attacks along the highly militarised de-facto frontier.
Pakistan's army did not immediately comment on India's claim. Both countries regularly accuse one another of initiating skirmishes.
Shakir Ahmed, a resident of Poonch in Indian-controlled Kashmir, said people were hearing loud sounds of shelling. He says 'people are afraid, it's getting dark. We pray it doesn't escalate into war.'
Pictures have emerged supposedly showing the remains of a payload released by Indian jets overnight in Balakot, Pakistan
Earlier, a Indian government source claimed 300 fighters had been killed in the airstrikes amid fears more suicide attacks were 'imminent'.
But Pakistan denied there had been casualties, admitting only that jets had crossed into its airspace over the ceasefire line in the Himalayan region and dropped payloads.
This morning, Pakistan President Arif Alvi warned India had created 'hysteria' in the wake of the suicide attack in the disputed Kashmir region on February 14.
Addressing an international conference on media and conflict, Alvi warned that rhetoric 'can lead to war.' He did not address the overnight incursion by Indian fighter jets but warned that 'we know how to defend ourselves.'
Meanwhile, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan described India's claims as 'fictitious'.
'Once again, the Indian government has resorted to a self- serving, reckless and fictitious claim,' he said and added that the statements from India were 'for domestic consumption' in the run-up to elections.
He says India risks 'putting regional peace and stability at grave risk' and summoned a meeting of the Parliament for Wednesday.
According to the statement, Khan said that 'India has committed uncalled for aggression to which Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing.'
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, said his country is in 'safe hands' and that 'today is a day to pay homage to India's brave hearts,' - an apparent reference to 40 Indian soldiers killed in the Valentine's Day suicide bombing.
'I vow that I will not let the country bow down,' he said.
Earlier, India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said it launched the overnight strikes because New Delhi believed suicide attacks were 'imminent'. JeM is a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al-Qaeda and has been on a UN terror list since 2001.
Prime Minister Imran Khan called India's claims 'self- serving, reckless and fictitious' before army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor (pictured in 2017) warned it is now Islamabad's turn for a 'surprise', adding: ' Now it is your turn to wait for our response'
An Indian police officer fires a teargas shell at Kashmiri Muslim protesters amid simmering tensions in the Kashmir region today
Indian Hindu Sena organisation members in New Delhi staged an anti-Pakistan protest as they celebrated the overnight strikes
'A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen (suicide) action were eliminated,' he told a media briefing.
Pakistan's military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted that the Indian Air Force had violated the Line of Control, the de facto border between Indian-and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan Air Force jets were scrambled in response to the incursion, he said.
'Facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force (the Indian aircraft) released payload in haste while escaping near Balakot. No casualties or damage.'
The Indian foreign secretary also said the camp was located in Balakot.
There was confusion among analysts over the location, as Balakot town is in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, some 25 miles northeast of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
A strike that deep in Pakistani territory, and not in a disputed region like Kashmir, would be a major escalation, analysts said.
In a later tweet, however, the Pakistani spokesman said the incursion was 'within AJ&K' - referring to the formal name of Pakistani Kashmir - and just three to four miles over the LoC.
The move worsens tensions between India and arch-rival Pakistan over disputed Kashmir. Pictured: Indian security forces in disputed Kashmir today
The Indian foreign secretary said the camp was located in the Pakistani village Balakot
Pakistan's president Arif Alvi (right, meeting Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this month) has warned against 'brinkmanship that can lead to war' after India claimed to have bombed 'a very large' number of militants preparing to carry out suicide attacks
Ghafoor did not clarify what he meant by 'payload', which can refer either to bombs and missiles, or more generally to items carried which are not needed for the aircraft to fly.
The military spokesman also tweeted images of what he said was the payload dropped by Indian planes, showing what appeared to be pieces of metal and displaced soil in a heavily forested area.
Private Indian broadcaster CNN News 18 said: 'Top government sources said that there were nearly 200 casualties from the (Indian Air Force) strike.'
Meanwhile, separate Indian media reports claimed that New Delhi received intelligence that JeM had shifted many of its militants to the Balakot base - which was described as a 'five-star resort style camp'.
The Hindustan Times reported that Indian military were essentially provided with a 'sitting duck target' for their strikes.
A source is said to have claimed more than 25 trainers were killed at the seven-acre camp, which was said to have had a swimming pool, cooks and cleaners.
New Delhi had threatened to retaliate after the February 14 attack, the deadliest in three decades in Kashmir, killed more than 40 Indian paramilitaries.
Top Indian government officials said that Tuesday's strike displayed the country's determination to act against Pakistan - which New Delhi accuses of using militants as proxies against it.
'They say they want India to bleed with a 1,000 cuts. We say that each time you attack us, be certain we will get back at you, harder and stronger,' said foreign affairs minister of state, Vijay Kumar Singh, a former head of the Indian army.
Cabinet member Prakash Javadekar, the human resources minister, told journalists: 'This is incredible. A necessary step for the country's security.'
Islamabad has said it had nothing to do with the latest bombing in Kashmir, and has warned it will retaliate if attacked by India.
Pakistani military analyst Hasan Askari called Tuesday's incursion a 'dangerous move'.
New Delhi had vowed retaliation after a Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed a suicide attack that killed dozens of troops in Indian Kashmir
'If such actions continue, it can escalate into major conflict, which will not serve any purpose but to plunge the region into serious crisis,' he said.
Tensions are the highest since 2016, when Pakistan-based militants launched a pre-dawn assault on an Indian army camp in Kashmir that killed 19 soldiers.
In response, India launched what it called 'surgical strikes' on Pakistani territory. Pakistan denied the strikes ever took place.
Kashmir has been claimed by both India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. They have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan territory.
Pakistan's interior ministry announced last week that authorities had seized control of a complex in Punjab believed to be the JeM headquarters.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/02/26/pakistan-threatens-violent-response-after-indian-airstrikes/
Main photo article Pakistan’s top military chiefs meeting to discuss a response to a bombing raid by India – and have alluded to the country’s nuclear capabilities.
India said its warplanes killed ‘a very large number’ of fighters when they struck a militant training camp inside...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/26/08/10298160-0-image-a-55_1551170498907.jpg
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