India strikes after Kashmir attack

BALAKOT (AP):

A predawn air strike inside Pakistan that India said targeted a terrorist training camp and killed a “very large number” of militants ratcheted up tensions yesterday between the two nuclear-armed rivals at odds over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Islamabad said there were no casualties in the strike near the town of Balakot, close to the border with Pakistan’s sector of Kashmir, where residents said loud explosions woke them up, rattling their homes.

“It was the middle of the night, we were very scared,” one resident, 20-year-old Mohammad Abbas, told The Associated Press. “We didn’t think for a moment that it was from planes, but the explosions were very powerful.”

Pakistan’s military cordoned off the area and kept reporters about a kilometre (half a mile) from the bombing site.

The air strike was the latest escalation since a deadly suicide bombing in India’s section of Kashmir earlier this month killed more than 40 Indian soldiers. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack but vowed to respond to any Indian military operation against it.

Kashmir is split between the two countries but claimed by each in its entirety. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the bombing. The bomber, who made a video before the attack, was a resident of Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir.

Pakistan’s military spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said Indian planes crossed into the Muzafarabad sector of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. He said Pakistan scrambled fighters and the Indian jets “released payload in haste” near Balakot.