Tension mounts after Indian jets bomb targets in Pakistan

Bloomberg

India said its fighter jets destroyed a major terrorist camp in Pakistan in the worst escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals since 2001, in an incident that Islamabad has described as a “grave aggression.”
More than 300 people were killed in the air strikes at the camp belonging to terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed that has trained suicide bombers, according to an Indian official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the armed forces and citizens to “remain prepared for all eventualities.” A statement released from his office on Tuesday notes Pakistan would respond “at the time and place of its choosing,” and rejects India’s claim that it had hit a terror camp or inflicted heavy casualties. “Once again the Indian government has resorted to a self-serving, reckless and fictitious claim,” the statement reads.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said India carried out the strikes in Pakistan following an attack in Kashmir earlier this month in response to intelligence that indicated Jaish-e-Mohammed was planning more attacks.
“In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary,” Gokhale said in New Delhi. “A very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of extremists who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated.”
India’s benchmark stock index S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.7 percent at close in Mumbai, recovering from a 1,4 percent drop. Across the border Pakistan’s main measure plunged 1.9 percent, the most since December 6. India’s rupee was little changed at 71.03 to a dollar at 3:44 p.m. in Mumbai. “The last time the Indian Air Force crossed the line of control intentionally and publicly to conduct air strikes was 1971,” Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at MIT said via email, referring to the last Indo-Pakistan war.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said at a televised news conference in Islamabad that India violated the line of control. “India has committed aggression against Pakistan today— I will call it a grave aggression,” Qureshi said.

Tense Relations
Relations between the historic arch-rivals has been extremely tense since a suicide car bombing, claimed by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, on February 14 in Kashmir killed 40 members of India’s security forces. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations designated terrorist group.
It’s the worst escalation since 2001, when Pakistan and India moved ballistic missiles and troops to their border following an attack on parliament in New Delhi that was also blamed on Jaish-e-Mohammad.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since partition and independence in 1947.
“This is the first time that India has crossed the line of control and from the looks of it, the international border,” said G. Parthasarathy, the former Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan. “In 2001, we had deployed the army on our borders but there was no military action.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who faces a general election in the coming months, is under enormous pressure after blaming Pakistan for the worst attack on security forces in Kashmir in several decades, and markets reacted after Modi pledged a “befitting reply.”
Islamabad has denied any role in the February 14 attack. Khan vowed to retaliate against India in a televised speech on February 19 if New Delhi launched any sort of military response. Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, in the past few days visited troops along the “Line of Control” to see their preparedness, according to the military media wing Inter-Services Public Relations.