Indian officials rubbished Pakistan’s allegation that Indian Air Force fighters violated its airspace, terming Islamabad’s claim a “misinformation campaign” to divert international attention from the Mumbai attacks.
NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: Indian officials on Sunday rubbished Pakistan’s allegation that Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters violated its airspace on Saturday, terming Islamabad’s claim a “misinformation campaign” to divert international attention from the Mumbai attacks.
Islamabad’s military establishment has alleged that Indian fighters entered up to 3 miles inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Lahore and Pakistani Air Force jets had to chase them back over the border. Military circles said the PAF had been placed on high alert to prevent further incursions.
The Pakistani military, a source said, believes these could be reconnaissance sorties ahead of Indian air strikes on headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud Daawa, either in Muridke near Lahore or Muzaffarabad in PoK.
But president Asif Ali Zardari, at a joint press conference with Britain’s prime minister Gordon Brown, played down the alleged airspace violation, saying such inadvertent and technical “incursions do happen”. Indian planes were flying at an altitude of about 40,000 feet when they “slightly entered Pakistani space” while executing a turn, he said.
The IAF, however, denied this. “There has been no violation of Pakistani airspace by Indian fighter planes,” wing commander Mahesh Uppasani, the IAF spokesman, said.
“There is a misinformation campaign going on to digress attention from what happened on 2611.”
The external affairs ministry did not respond officially, saying the IAF had already issued a denial. But in private, an official said this was “part of the Pakistani military’s attempts to take the focus away from the Lashkar-e-Taiba attacks in Mumbai”.
“It started with the claim that India is amassing troops on the border,” the official said. “Islamabad then threatened the US and Nato allies that it would pull Pakistani forces away from the Afghan border to guard the eastern front, followed by the hoax call from Pranab Mukherjee to president Zardari threatening military action, and now this.”
India realises the current crisis is also linked to the tug-of-war between the powerful Pakistani military, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the elected government. The army, which has been on the backfoot ever since general Pervez Musharraf was ousted, is hoping to win back public approval by playing the nationalist card.
“The aim is to create war hysteria and drum up ultra-nationalist feelings, hoping to get the people to turn to the army as their guardian angel,” another external affairs official said.
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