Imran Khan’s remarks come after Pakistan claimed “strikes across Line of Control from within Pakistani airspace”.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has asked India for a dialogue as hostilities between the two nations spiked this morning following an engagement between the air forces. Pakistan and Indian Air Forces had not engaged since the 1971 war. The unprecedented escalation had come within a fortnight of the Jaish-e Mohammad suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, in which 40 soldiers lost their lives.
“If this (situation) escalates, it will no longer be in my control or in (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi’s” Imran Khan said in a televised statement. “We invite you for dialogue… better sense must prevail,” he added.
Following last night’s air strikes by the IAF on Jaish’s biggest terror camp at Balakot, Pakistan today targeted Indian military installations, the government said. An F-16 jet of the Pakistan Air Force was hit and its wreckage fell across the Line of Control.
India has also lost a MiG fighter jet and the pilot has been missing in action, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Pakistan has claimed that they have captured the pilot – a claim India said needs to be verified.
India had shot down Imran Khan’s repeated offers for dialogue, arguing that talks and terror can’t go hand in hand. A chunk of the International community has joined its voice to India’s repeated demand that Pakistan clean out the terror bases operating from its soil.
After the Pulwama attack, Pakistan had asked for evidence of the involvement of Jaish-e Mohammad.
Source: NDTV
