Two weeks after the Pulwama terror attack, India on Tuesday crossed over Line of Control (LoC) and destroyed the JeM, LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen training camps at around 3:30 am. The Indian Air Force (IAF) used 12 Mirage aircraft and dropped 1000 kilograms of bombs on the terror launch pads across the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The last time IAF crossed the LoC and used the Mirage aircraft was during the 1971 war. Even during the 1999 Kargil war, the IAF had not crossed over to the LoC. The countries world over observe extreme caution when they decide to violate a foreign country's airspace as doing so is considered to be an act of war.

India strikes Pakistan LIVE Updates

Today, IAF did not just strike sites at Chikoti and Muzaffarabad close to the LoC, it also went deep inside the Pakistani territory to destroy the terror launch pads i.e., Balakot sector. In other words, India not just crossed LoC, it attacked Pakistan.

Pakistan on Tuesday claimed that IAF fighter jets crossed the LoC and returned after the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) scrambled war planes. Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Asif Ghafoor tweeted early Tuesday and Radio

Pakistan claimed that the IAF planes dropped payload in haste before leaving, which fell near Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The alleged incident took place in the Muzaffarabad sector, claimed Radio Pakistan.

The airstrike in Pakistan follows a suicide bombing attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama on February 14 that killed 40 troopers.</s>Today's surgical air strikes on the terror camp at Balakot deep inside Pakistan is unprecedented because it is the first time Indian AIr Force (IAF) has penetrated so deep into Pakistani territory in a peace-time operation. IAF jets crossed the LoC (Line of Actual Control), the entire Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and then hit the target inside Khyber Pakhtukhwa.Another daring raid inside Pakistani territory was carried out by the IAF during the Bangladesh war in 1971. Though it can't be called a surgical strike, the 1971 raid was an equally bold operation by four young Indian fighter pilots who penetrated into the enemy airspace. They were tasked to hit the enemy planes parked at Murid airbase in Pakistan.On December 8, 1971, Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj, Flying Officer VK Heble, Flying Officer BC Karambaya and Flight Lieutenant AL Deoskar flew Hunter jets to the Murid airbase located 120 kilometres inside Pakistan."We were a four-aircraft formation. Aircraft 1 and 2 went ahead on schedule. 3 and 4 were asked to delay their attack by a minute and a half. There was lot of ack ack fire in the sky. We broke radio silence and the lead aircraft told me 'I just clobbered a four-engine aircraft in the pen," BC Karambaya, who won a Vir Chakra in 1971 and retired several years later as a Wing Commander, was quoted as saying in an NDTV report."There was black all round. I saw what I thought were MiG-19s [infact, the Chinese F-6, a copy of the Russian MiG-19] in a blast pen. Deoskar spotted another. I fired a small burst - a refuelling bowser caught fire. I kept on firing and was at a height of only 300 feet and the aircraft started rocking - I had clearly been hit by ack ack fire. I said, 'I am ejecting.' As I was about to pull the handle [to eject], I realised I didn't want to become a prisoner of war. I kept flying low and then I saw the whole front right part of the wing and fuel tanks had been blown away but somehow the aircraft kept flying. There was very violent rocking. I just maintained my height and crossed the Indus and Sutlej into Indian territory," he said.According to the NDTV report, what Karambaya or the other pilots in the attack on Murid didn't know at the time was that they had just participated in perhaps the greatest offensive counter-air operation in the history of the IAF, the success of which has been highlighted in a new book 47 years after the 1971 war.In his new book, 'In The Ring and On Its Feet - Pakistan Air Force in the 1971 Indo-Pak war', Pakistan's premier military aviation historian Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail (retd.) has stated that IAF Hunters belonging to 20 Squadron destroyed 5 PAF F-86 Sabres on the ground in Murid. The F-86 wasn't just any fighter - the Sabre was the premier fighter of the Pakistan Air Force and the single biggest challenge for the Indian Air Force in air battles in both the 1965 and 1971 wars, a jet that shot down several IAF fighters in air-to-air combat and inflicted heavy damage to ground targets in Indian territory.Ironically, the official Ministry of Defence commissioned history of the Indian Air Force, published after the 1971 war, makes no claim on the destruction of the Sabres, claims the report.According to the report, the only reference to the December 8 mission is attributed to a book written by a former Pakistan Army Major General and says, "In two counter-air missions by the IAF, five aircraft were destroyed on the ground at Murid and Chaklala".</s>The media and the Acela corridor are fixated today on the Michael Cohen saga like a hungry kid outside a candy store, looking for a sugar rush to sate their Trump Derangement Syndrome. But it is still rather amazing that even our ego-centric, Beltway-obsessed media is giving almost no attention to the possibility that full scale war may be about to break out between India and Pakistan. I’m having to scour the European press, like the Irish Times, to find any reporting.

India has sent some warplanes into Pakistani-held territory around Kashmir, and it is reported that Pakistan has apparently shot down at least one Indian fighter jet. India and Pakistan have long disputed Kashmir, but recently a Pakistani-linked militant group carried out an attack in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers. The first Indian counterattack by air is reported to have killed 300 Pakistanis.

As everyone knows, India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons, and it is still not widely known on the Acela corridor that India and Pakistan were close to war once in the late 1990s, and it supposedly required the strenuous interventions of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to keep that crisis from escalating.

I’m guessing some of our media’s lack of interest in this current crisis is that they haven’t figured out how to blame it on Trump yet. Plus they’d have to do some actual work to report the story. Ben Rhodes was right: most journalists today are so ignorant they probably can’t find Kashmir on a map (maybe the map to the Kashmir sweater department at Bergdorf-Goodman), let alone tell you anything about the background of the conflict.

JOHN adds: I believe they did actually fight a couple of wars in 1965 and 1971, not to mention fighting and massive casualties at the time of the partition. But I think Steve is right, the press is past caring about anything that doesn’t relate to Trump.</s>New Delhi, Feb 27: A day after Indian Air Force (IAF) crossed the Line of Control (LOC) on Tuesday morning, Pakistan on Wednesday exhibited aggression along the LOC that has created a war-like situation.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Tuesday announced that India conducted a major preemptive strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakote early Tuesday, killing a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers, and senior commanders.

He did not divulge details of the attack, but various reports said that as many as 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets of the Indian Air Force took part in the operation and 1,000 kgs bombs were dropped on terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC).

Also Read | How Indian Air Force took Pakistan by surprise and effectively struck at Balakot

IAF's action comes days after Jaish-e-Mohammed trained terrorist attacked a CRPF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar Highway in Pulwama on February 14 and killed 40 jawans, which raged India.

After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Indian forces have been given free hand to take suitable action, Pakistan was on high alert to avert any action by India. However, India's Tuesday action left Pakistan surprised.

By the Tuesday evening, Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate firing across the LOC resulting in the escalation of tension between the two countries.

On Wednesday, Pakistan claimed its Air Force shot down two Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace.

In a tweet, Director General ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor said one of the aircraft fell inside Azad Jammu and Kashmir while other fell inside Indian occupied Kashmir. Pakistan also claimed of arresting two Indian pilots.

Pakistan Army reportedly released a video in which a man was purportedly seen as saying that "I am Wing Commander Abhinandan, I am IAF officer. My service No is 27 981". It said that the second captured and injured Indian pilot was in a hospital and safe. However, there was no official confirmation from the Indian government.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Faisal was quoted by ANI as saying that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) undertook strikes across LoC from Pakistani airspace. The sole purpose of this action was to demonstrate our right, will, and capability for self-defence. We do not wish to escalate but are fully prepared if forced into that paradigm.

On the other hand, India said that Pakistan violated its airspace and it has destroyed a Pakistan's F-16 fighter jet.

"Pakistan Air Force's F-16 that violated Indian air space shot down in Indian retaliatory fire 3KM within Pakistan territory in Lam valley, Nowshera sector," reported ANI.

After Pakistan's aggression, Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held a high-level meeting in the Home Ministry and the situation along the India-Pakistan border.

Later, Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a review meeting at his office in which Doval is learnt to have briefed the Prime Minister about the current situation.

India heightened the security level inside the country and along the border. Eight airports have been closed as a precautionary measure. These airports are: Srinagar, Leh, Jammu, Amritsar, Pathankot, Dharamshala, Chandigarh, and Dehradun.

Also Read | How the Sukhoi 30 acted as a decoy as the Mirages struck at Balakot

The helicopter service at Vaishno Devi Shrine in Jammu has also been suspended.

The Army and Border Security Force (BSF) have also been put on the highest degree of alertness along the border.

The airspace of the northern India has been freed of commercial flights.

The Indian Air Force has asked its pilots to be ready for action within two minutes as and when required.

Indian commercial international flights have also been advised not to cross Pakistani airspace while en route to their destinations.

In another development, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that when the United States can enter Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden then why can't India do such operation in today's situation.

A sign of concern for Pakistan has been that China has not reacted the way it expected after India's non-military action in Pakistan.

China and Pakistan have friendly relations, but Beijing has asked India and Pakistan to maintain restraint.

Major airports in Pakistan have also been shut for commercial flights.

Meanwhile, with speculations of an approaching war, many Indians and Pakistanis have taken to social media to express their disapproval of the war. They were tweeting with hashtag #SayNotoWar.
The attack is the first time since Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 that the Indian Air Force has crossed and attacked Pakistan beyond the line of control. As well as the first time since both countries have acquired nuclear weapons.