Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The nuclear neighbours on brink of brutal war
Pakistan and India in air skirmishes
WORLD leaders yesterday called for calm as warring neighbours Pakistan and India are feared to be teetering on the brink of nuclear conflict.
The nations shot down each other’s fighter jets following their first air strikes against each other since their 1971 war, sending shockwaves around the globe.
Ground forces in the countries had opened fire across borders in more than a dozen locations. Pakistan said at least four people, including civilians, had been killed and seven wounded in artillery exchanges, with thousands evacuated.
One official said a meeting of its command and control authority – which rules over the use of nuclear weapons – had been tabled, adding: “You all know what that means.”
Prime Minister Theresa May said she is “deeply concerned about rising tensions between India and Pakistan” and called for “restraint on both sides”. And US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged them to avoid “further military activity”. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has pushed for peace talks, saying: “History tells us wars are full of miscalculation. Given the weapons we have, can we afford miscalculation?”
But Indian Prime Minster Narendra Mod faces an election soon and a tough stance on Pakistan could win votes. The catalyst for the skirmishes was a suicide car bombing in Indiancontrolled Kashmir earlier this month. The blast by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-mohammed killed 40 Indian paramilitary police.
On Tuesday, India targeted the al-qaeda-linked militants in an air strike on a training base in Balakot, 30 miles inside Pakistan.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said “a large number” of militants were killed, adding: “The existence of such facilities, capable of training hundreds of jihadis, could not have functioned without knowledge of Pakistani authorities.”
TENSION has existed between the neighbours since they left British colonial rule in 1947, sparking horrific inter-ethnic violence between mostly Hindu India and largely Muslim Pakistan.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir had been expected to go to Pakistan after the partition that carved out the two countries. But it had a Hindu ruler