PAKISTAN/INDIA: INDIAN AIR FORCE OFFICIALS CONDEMN KILLING OF PILOT BY PAKISTAN ARMY / KASHMIR LATEST.

Record ID: 1375049

  • Title: PAKISTAN/INDIA: INDIAN AIR FORCE OFFICIALS CONDEMN KILLING OF PILOT BY PAKISTAN ARMY / KASHMIR LATEST.
  • Date: 30th May 1999
  • Summary: KARGIL, JAMMU AND KASHMIR, INDIA (MAY 29, 1999) (ANI) ***QUALITY AS INCOMING*** LV: LONG SHOT OF ARMY TRUCKS GV: VARIOUS OF CONVOY GV: HELICOPTER FLYING THROUGH MOUNTAIN PASS LV: VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS LOADING ARTILLERY MV/GV: ARTILLERY GUNS AND SOLDIERS (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 26th August 2014 18:33
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KARGIL, JAMMU AND KASHMIR, NEW DELHI, INDIA ATHMUQAM, NEELAM VALLEY, 1 1/2 KMS FROM LINE OF CONTROL, PAKISTANI SIDE OF KASHMIR, PAKISTAN
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan India
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA32PMVYBJSWXEJUKFA2PZFY2HG
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Indian Air force officials have condemned the killing of an Indian pilot by the Pakistani army, calling it an act of "cowardice" as India's air strikes against infiltrators close to the Pakistani-controlled Kargil region of Kashmir entered a fifth day.
    The growing tension between India and Pakistan in Kashmir has forced hundreds of people to flee their homes in the past two weeks.
    On Saturday (May 29), Indian troops, backed by warplanes, made major gains against guerilla positions, despite losing two fighter planes and a helicopter in the operations.
    India on Sunday (May 30) pressed its offensive against hundreds of heavily armed infiltrators dug in on mountain peaks in northern Kashmir close to the demarcation line with arch rival Pakistan.
    As the fighting continued, India said it was considering a Pakistani proposal for a visit by Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz to defuse the crisis in Kashmir, but no dates had been set.
    Indian government leaders and army commanders said they would press on with the ground offensive backed by jet fighters and helicopters to expel what it said were Pakistani-backed infiltrators in northern Kashmir.
    Indian troops backed by fighter jets launched a major assault on Saturday (May 29) to dislodge the infiltrators from the Kargil, Drass and Batalik sectors that overlook a key highway linking India's Kashmir Valley with the mountainous Ladakh region.
    But military experts said it would take time before the guerrillas -- some of them armed with stinger missiles -- could be completely ousted from the ridges and mountain folds close to the military Line of Control with Pakistan.
    Indian state radio on Sunday quoted Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as telling his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during a telephone conversation on Friday (May 28) that the air raids would continue until the guerrillas were ousted.
    Pakistan has termed the air raids escalatory.New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for provoking the confrontation, the most dangerous in nearly three decades, and has claimed that the infiltrators include some Pakistani soldiers.
    India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 -- two of them over Kashmir, which both claim.
    Each country also conducted a series of nuclear tests one year ago, further raising tensions on the subcontinent.
    Indian political groups have buried their differences with Vajpayee's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and endorsed its first peacetime use of air power in Kashmir.
    Newspapers said the Kashmir action, code named "Operation Victory", had started making gains against Pakistan.
    But Indian military experts also made clear that New Delhi had been caught napping in Kashmir.
    At least two Indian jet fighters and one helicopter have been downed during the conflict.One pilot was killed and another captured.
    "The joint operation against the infiltrators in Kargil sector have continued relentlessly and with renewed zeal and intelligence reports and feedback from the ground troops indicate steady progress in the Kargil sector and heavy attrition on the intruders," said Major General J.J.Singh.
    A military spokesman also told reporters that a post-mortem on Air Force Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja showed he had been shot dead after he had ejected from his plane.
    "The injury to the left knee could possibly be due to ejection injuries.This brave pilot who only loitered in the area in an attempt to locate and spot the downed plane has been shot," said Air Vice Marshal S.K.Malik.
    Malik condemned what he calls was a "cold-blooded murder."
    "This is a cold-blooded murder and an act of cowardice on the part of Pakistani regular."
    Malik says Indian pilots were rearing to "avenge" Ahuja's death.
    "Our pilots the colleagues of squadron leader late Ahuja are now even more determined and resolved to avenge the death of their colleague by carrying out even more determined attacks to drive out these intruders from our territory," he said.
    Malik says operations were being restricted within Indian territory due to which it was taking more time to flush out the intruders.
    "We have resolved to limit the action with in the Line of Control and therefore it is going to take some time.The operations are continuing in very close cooperation with the Army and are jointly been planned and in phases you will see the result begin to show."
    The number of people fleeing the Neelum valley had increased in recent weeks due to constant Indian shelling over the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the disputed Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.
    Firing in the Neelum valley has caused residents to abandon their homes and seek refuge in forests farther away from the line.
    "India had been firing all the 24 hours here.It has been frequently making announcements on loudspeakers to vacate the area.We were so scared that we ran towards the mountains," a villager of one of the affected villages said.
    Others say they have lost everything because of continuous firing from the Indian side.
    Despite the difficulties, many villages have vowed to defend themselves.
    Pakistani and Indian soldiers are almost eyeball-to-eyeball across the U.N.-monitored 720-km (450-mile) line that runs from east to west through the peaks and valleys of the Himalayas.
    Pakistani military officials say up to 30,000 people live between Indian bunkers and Pakistani positions.
    Though the present hot spot is the Kargil and Drass sector 200 km east of Neelum valley, residents in the valley say life is not safe because of the constant shelling.
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