Pakistan says Indian warplanes violated airspace

[Bhaisahab]

Source: Reuters India

ISLAMABAD, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Saturday that Indian warplanes had violated its airspace but said this was "inadvertent" and there was no cause for alarm about an escalation of tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

In New Delhi, an Indian Defence Ministry spokesman said he had no information on the reported incursion.

A Pakistani airforce spokesman said there were two violations, one in the Kashmir area and another in the sector around the city of Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"We have confirmed it. We have spoken to the Indian airforce and they have said it was inadvertent," Pakistan Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINLD30917820081213

[jaysunb]

1. Not good....

n/t

[inanna]

2. recommend

[Mudoria]

3. If these two aren't more careful

there is going to be an "incident", either provoked or a genuine mistake, and we'll have a shooting war. India and Pakistan relations are already like lighting a match near a powder keg.

[ohio2007]

4. Pakistan blinks in India standoff ; breaking the ice exposes the tip of the iceberg

The Taliban Parallel govt wants to get Pak govt troops out of its territories and hopes the Mumbai attack "inspired" enough of the Indian minorities to get them media exposure during the summer election run ups to force the two nations into conflict....taking the heat off their own "nation building" plans along the Afghan border.

Pakistan blinks in India standoff

snip
Islamabad also agreed to shut the popular religious charity Jamaat ud Dawa, which runs hundreds of schools and many hospitals throughout the country and has close links to the banned LeT. Western diplomats hailed the move as a significant climb-down by Pakistan’s political and military leadership to avoid a conflict that the near-bankrupt country can ill afford.
Diplomats fear that another terrorist attack on India in the run-up to its general election early next summer would provoke an immediate military response, which could in turn lead to a full-scale armed conflict.


snip

Britain’s high commissioner to India, Sir Richard Stagg, stepped up pressure on Islamabad when he publicly stated that Pakistan-based terrorist groups were behind the Mumbai attacks. “There is clear evidence that the attacks in Mumbai have links to organisations in Pakistan and we have been urging the government of Pakistan to take effective and appropriate measures to deal with this,” he said.


snip
Both Britain and the US fear that rising tension with India may act as a distraction to Pakistan from its battle with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the tribal areas along the Afghan border

snip

“Pakistan has backed down. They are shutting down Jamaat ud Dawa, offices have been locked and schools are being shut down. Fear has brought them to this point. They understand how angry India is and that they can’t afford a confrontation. They already have a war in the tribal areas, they have no resources for another challenge and no stomach for it,” he said.

snip

A growing concern in intelligence circles is that LeT, originally backed by Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency before LeT was banned in 2002, now has an autonomous organisation within India’s large Muslim population with the capacity to strike without back-up from Pakistan.

snip
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5337662.ece

With .....Saudi funded projects being shut down in Pakistan..... due to the loss of oil surplus capital....., $ will have to come from other creative , non traditional, sources

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3741868/Mumbai-attacks-How-Indian-born-Islamic-militants-are-trained-in-Pakistan.html