Both India and Pakistan claim all of Muslim-majority Kashmir, but control only parts of it. The nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars and a limited conflict since independence from Britain in 1947 - and all but one were over Kashmir.<doc-sep>This obfuscation is made possible by the fact that there are two towns by the name of Balakot - one just across the LoC from the Indian town of Poonch, and the other deep inside Pakistan in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The BBC reports that the strikes were in the latter, where local villagers say they heard explosions.<doc-sep>India says it carried out a “pre-emptive” air strike on a terrorist training camp in Pakistan on Tuesday, in a sharp escalation of tensions between the countries following a deadly terror attack in Kashmir earlier this month. Pakistan vowed to retaliate after Indian air force jets bombed what New Delhi said was a key training camp run by the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad. India had said it would strike back against the organisation which had claimed responsibility for the killing of 40 Indian paramilitary police in a suicide bombing on February 14. New Delhi had “credible intelligence . . . that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country, and the fedayeen [militant] jihadis were being trained for this purpose”, Vijay Keshav Gokhale, India’s foreign secretary, said, adding that a number of militants were killed. New Delhi said the camp was located near Balakot in Pakistan, 100km north of the capital Islamabad and close to the border with the disputed Kashmir region. India said it was run by Yousuf Azhar, the brother-in-law of the JeM chief Masood Azhar. It blames JeM for a series of high-profile terror attacks on its territory in recent decades, including the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. A spokesman for the Pakistan military said the Indian warplanes crossed the so-called line of control into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir for the first time since 1971, when the two countries went to war over East Pakistan’s move to break away from Islamabad and secure its independence as Bangladesh. The Indian warplanes appear to have hit the camp in Pakistan by releasing their weapons over the disputed region, which is split between the two countries but claimed in its entirety by both. If India releases bomb damage assessment video and pushes the point, it is significant enough that Pakistan may have no choice but to retaliate Pakistan’s National Security Council accused India in a statement of “uncalled for aggression” and threatened to respond “at the time and the place of its choosing”. Rejecting claims that the air strike had resulted in heavy casualties, it added that the “Indian government has resorted to a self-serving reckless and fictitious claim”. It said the air strikes were carried out for Indian “domestic consumption” as the Modi government prepares for parliamentary elections this year. Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for Pakistan’s armed forces, posted photos on Twitter purporting to be the location of the air strike, showing fragments of ordnance and shells on a forested hillside. Tensions between India and Pakistan have surged since the Kashmir attacks, when a suicide bomber drove an explosive laden vehicle into a military convoy. JeM claimed responsibility and New Delhi alleged that Islamabad had provided “full freedom” to the organisation to attack India with impunity. Islamabad denied any involvement but pledged to crack down on those responsible if New Delhi provided “actionable intelligence”. The ratcheting up of tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours comes at a sensitive time for India ahead of national elections. Mr Modi had vowed retribution for the deaths, saying he had given India’s security forces “full freedom” to plan a response, and members of his government were quick to celebrate Tuesday morning’s air strikes. “They say they want India to bleed with 1,000 cuts. We say that be certain each time you attack us, we will get back at you harder and stronger,” tweeted junior foreign minister VK Singh, a retired general. Amit Shah, the president of Mr Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, tweeted that the strike was an example of the prime minister’s “strong & decisive” leadership. Analysts said it was unclear if the air strike would lead to an escalation of military hostilities. “The ball is now in Pakistan’s court,” said Uday Bhaskar, an Indian defence analyst. “This is a significant response — the first use of air power since the 1971 war — but all the signalling from India about how they are trying to package this is that it’s only directed at terrorism and the terror infrastructure, and it does not in any way threaten the territorial integrity of Pakistan.” Vipin Narang, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Islamabad’s effort to play down the extent of the damage suggested it was trying to de-escalate the situation. But he warned that excessive Indian triumphalism could fuel demands by the Pakistani public for a robust response. “There is a certain amount that Pakistan would accept as long as India doesn’t gloat about it,” Prof Narang said. “But if India releases bomb damage assessment video and pushes the point, it is significant enough that Pakistan may have no choice but to retaliate.” In 2016, India carried out what it described as a “surgical strike” on so-called “terror launch pads” across the line of control in territory held by Pakistan, after militants allegedly associated with JeM attacked an Indian army base and killed 18 soldiers. At that time, Islamabad also denied that there had been any casualties and tensions subsequently abated. India and Pakistan have fought three open wars and a fourth undeclared military conflict over the Muslim-majority province of Kashmir, which both sides claim.<doc-sep>Pakistan's air force has shot down two Indian warplanes, capturing one Indian pilot, after they crossed the boundary between the two nuclear-armed rivals in the disputed territory of Kashmir, a military spokesman said. Key points: One of the aircraft fell on India's side of Kashmir, while the second came down in Pakistani-held territory and its pilot was captured, a Pakistani official said One of the aircraft fell on India's side of Kashmir, while the second came down in Pakistani-held territory and its pilot was captured, a Pakistani official said Police officials in Indian-occupied Kashmir said two Indian pilots and a civilian had died after an air force jet crashed in Kashmir, but did not say if it had been shot down Police officials in Indian-occupied Kashmir said two Indian pilots and a civilian had died after an air force jet crashed in Kashmir, but did not say if it had been shot down Residents have fled homes along the Line of Control between the two countries as troops exchange fire The dramatic escalation came hours after Pakistan said mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir killed six civilians and wounded several others. Pakistan's army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said Pakistani troops captured the Indian pilot. One of the downed planes crashed in Pakistan's part of Kashmir while the other went down in an Indian-controlled section of the Himalayan region, he said. "This was not a retaliation in true sense, but to say Pakistan has capability — we can do it, but we want to be responsible, we don't want an escalation, we don't want a war," he told a news conference. Loading In a separate statement, Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had hit a "non-military" target inside Indian-controlled Kashmir, but that it had avoided human loss and collateral damage. "If India is striking at so-called terrorist backers without a shred of evidence, we also retain reciprocal rights to retaliate against elements that enjoy Indian patronage while carrying out acts of terror in Pakistan," the statement said. Indian Air Force spokesman Anupam Banerjee in New Delhi said he had no information on Pakistan's statement. Earlier, senior Indian police officer Munir Ahmed Khan said an Indian Air Force plane crashed in an Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir and it was not immediately known if there were casualties. Another police officer, SP Pani, said firefighters were at the site in the Budgam area where the Indian warplane crashed. Eyewitnesses said soldiers fired into the air to keep residents away from the crash site. According to local Pakistani police official Mohammad Altaf, the six fatalities in Wednesday's shelling included children. The shells hit the village of Kotli in Pakistan's section of Kashmir. An Indian army soldier walks past the wreckage of one of the downed Indian aircraft. ( AP: Mukhtar Khan Clashes along the Line of Control Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. Though Pakistani and Indian troops in Kashmir often trade fire, the latest civilian casualties on the Pakistani side came a day after tensions escalated sharply following a pre-dawn air strike and incursion by India on Tuesday that New Delhi said targeted a terrorist training camp in north-western Pakistan. Residents on both sides of the de-factor frontier, the so-called Line of Control, said there were exchanges of fire between the two sides through Tuesday night. In Pakistan's part of Kashmir, hundreds of villagers have fled border towns. The situation was no different in villages along the Line of Control in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where residents were moving to safer places following the intense exchange of fire, which began on Tuesday and continued through Wednesday. An Indian Air Force officer inspects the wreckage. ( AP: Mukhtar Khan In New Delhi, Indian officials said on Wednesday at least five of their soldiers were wounded in firing by Pakistani troops along the volatile frontier. Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand, an Indian Army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers targeted dozens of Indian military positions across the Line of Control throughout Tuesday night. An Indian military statement said that "out of anger and frustration", Pakistan "initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation". Pakistani reporters and troops visit the site of an Indian air strike in Jaba in Pakistan. ( AP: Aqeel Ahmed The statement said Indian troops "retaliated for effect" and claimed to have destroyed five Pakistani posts. It accused Pakistani soldiers of firing mortars and missiles "from civilian houses, using villagers as human shields". In Tuesday's pre-dawn strike by India, Pakistan said Indian warplanes dropped bombs near the Pakistani town of Balakot but there were no casualties. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was expected to convene the National Command Authority on Wednesday to discuss Islamabad's response to the incursions by Indian warplanes. Sorry, this video has expired Imran Khan meets with national security advisers as Indians celebrate Kashmir strike On Wednesday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told state-run Pakistan Television he was in touch with his counterparts across the world about the "Indian aggression", adding that New Delhi had endangered peace in the region by launching an airstrike on Pakistan. In New Delhi, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said her country did not wished to see further escalation of the situation with Pakistan and that it would continue to act with responsibility and restraint. She said the limited objective of India's pre-emptive strike inside Pakistan on a terrorist training camp on Tuesday was to act decisively against the terrorist infrastructure of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group, to pre-empt another terror attack in India. Tension has increased between Pakistan and India since Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the February 14 suicide bombing of a convoy of India's paramilitary forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir that killed 40 soldiers. Pakistan has said it was not involved in the attack and was ready to help New Delhi in the investigations. AP<doc-sep>
An Indian government minister says New Delhi will not share proof that a large number of militants were killed in a compound inside Pakistan late last month, after Islamabad raised doubts that any insurgents were harmed in the air strike. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a top ally to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on March 2 said that "no security agencies ever share operational details." "It's a very irresponsible stand," Jaitley told a news conference. India on February 26 launched what it called a “preemptive” air strike against Pakistan-based militants following a suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir earlier in the month that killed at least 41 Indian paramilitary personnel. The Pakistan-based Jaish-e Muhammad (JeM) militant group claimed responsibility for the February 14 attack. India said the raid against the compound used by JeM killed "a very large number" of militants, with some estimates reaching 400. Pakistani officials dismissed the claims that the site was a terror base, saying Indian aircraft had dropped their bombs in a wooded area, causing no damage or casualties. Pakistani officials and some Indian opposition leaders have asked New Delhi to share evidence of the results of the strike. "The armed forces must have, and our security and intelligence agencies must have, a full leeway in dealing with situations, and if anybody wants operational details to be made public...he certainly does not understand the system," Jaitley said. Indian Air Force officials have said it was up to political leaders to decide if evidence of the strike is made public. Tensions and violence have resumed between the two bitter rivals after potentially hopeful signs emerged that the latest crisis over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir was easing. On March 1, Pakistan released a captured Indian pilot in what its prime minister said was a “peace gesture.” That came after Pakistan's military said its air force shot down two India Air Force jets in its airspace and captured a pilot on the ground in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on February 27. India confirmed the loss of one of its MiG-21s and the capture of its pilot. It said it also foiled an attack by Pakistan warplanes over Kashmir and shot down one Pakistani plane. Islamabad denies any of its aircraft were shot down. However, Indian and Pakistani forces continued their fierce artillery barrages across the Line of Control (LoC) that acts as a de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region, with several deaths. The United States and other global powers, including China, have urged both sides to exhibit restraint to prevent a major conflict from breaking out between the two nuclear nations. Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both sides claim all of the Muslim-majority divided territory. With reporting by Reuters and AP