Pakistan Air Force, Navy and Army on high alert after PM Modi swears vengeance for Pahalgam attack

Anticipating military retaliation from India for a deadly terror attack by Islamabad-backed terrorists on tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Tuesday, the Pakistan military is on high alert.

 

The Indian military establishment has gone into a huddle possibly indicative of a punitive military action being planned. India had twice in the last decade crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to punish perpetrators of Pak-backed terrorist acts in Kashmir.

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With its Navy mounting live fire exercises in the Arabian Sea, Pakistan issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen/Mariners) for the area on Wednesday, effectively shutting off that particular area for air and marine operations.

While the Army has been sounded to be on high alert, there were reports of Pakistani Air Force aircraft operating close to the Indian borders—far from their base in Karachi.

 

Online tracking showed two aircraft—PAF198 (Lockheed Martin’s C-130E Hercules transporter) and PAF101 (Embraer Phenom 100) that are equipped with intelligence-gathering capability. The two planes were tracked to Lahore and Rawalpindi -- both very close to the Indian border.

 

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However, as of now no unusual movement of Pakistani troops has been noticed on the LoC: “Their regular troop movements are on and we do not notice any unusual movement at the moment,” a source in the Indian security establishment told THE WEEK.

 

The heinous act by well-trained Pakistan-backed terrorists in Pahalgam claimed 26 lives of tourists visiting a picturesque hilltop valley. On Thursday, an emotive PM Modi indicated India’s deep resolve to retaliate. He said in Bihar’s Madhubani: “I would like to make it clear that those who have carried out this terrorist attack and those who have planned it will get a bigger punishment than they can imagine. We will punish them.”

 

Meanwhile, Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif held a high-level National Security Committee (NSC) meeting that announced the suspension of all trade and bilateral accords with India besides the closure of airspace for Indian aircraft in response to India’s decision to hold in ‘abeyance’ the Indus Water Treaty of 1960, among a raft of other measures.

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The suspension of the Indus WatersTreaty is unprecedented and has huge potential of crippling Pakistan’s irrigation-based agriculture and considerably impact electricity supplies.

 

 

 

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