With tit-for-tat air raids across their hair-trigger border pushing India and Pakistan closer to all-out conflict, growing international concern is being fuelled by fears that the rivals are running out of escape routes, analysts say.
An Indian jet was shot down in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Wednesday after a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani warplanes, and the downed Indian fighter pilot was attacked by a mob and captured by Pakistan’s military.
While both sides have insisted they want to avoid escalation or war, the lack of direct government-to-government contact offers no clear way out of the crisis, and the United States – so often the peacebroker in past showdowns -- has shown no signs of taking up such a pivotal role this time, reports AFP.
Prime ministers Imran Khan of Pakistan and India’s Narendra Modi – who is on the verge of calling a general election – are under enormous domestic pressure to not be seen giving any ground.
Public opinion in India, already at a boiling point over a suicide attack in Kashmir that set off the hostilities, has been further inflamed by the capture of the downed Indian air force pilot, and video images showing him being slapped by a mob and interrogated.
‘Peace gesture’
Pakistan will return the captured pilot "as a peace gesture" to India, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said yesterday, amid efforts by the United States to defuse a crisis between the two nuclear powers a day after both downed enemy jets, reports Reuters.
Khan said the pilot would be released today, even as his military reported that four Pakistani civilians had been killed by Indian firing across the disputed border in Kashmir.
"As a peace gesture we will be releasing him tomorrow," Khan told parliament.
Khan's decision came after several other countries offered diplomatic assistance to de-escalate the confrontation between the two countries, who in 2002 almost went to war for the fourth time since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
‘Stand like a rock’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday asked Indians to "stand as a wall," with anger boiling over due to Pakistan's capture of the Indian pilot, as a crisis escalates between the nuclear-armed rivals.
In his first remarks since India and Pakistan both claimed to have shot down each other's fighter planes near the disputed border of Kashmir, the prime minister urged his countrymen to unite "as the enemy seeks to destabilise India."
"In the face of their objective, every Indian should stand as a wall, as a rock," Modi said.
Downed pilot
The downed Indian fighter pilot, who was attacked by a mob and then paraded on video by Pakistan's army, has become a social media sensation and a hero in his homeland amidst the spiralling crisis.
With Pakistani villagers and soldiers filming his capture and captivity on Wednesday, in clips that have since gone viral on social media, the pilot identified by Islamabad as Indian Wing Commander Abhi Nandan has fast emerged as the human face of the dangerous flare-up between the arch-foes.
India has not confirmed the pilot's identity. Indian media have given his name as Abhinandan Varthaman.
The pilot and the Indian Air Force (IAF) are at the heart of the crisis between two countries, who have conducted air strikes on each other's territory in the last two days. The United States and China have appealed for restraint.
Aerial strikes
India and Pakistan both said they shot down each other's fighter jets on Wednesday, with Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since the 1971 Liberation War, prompting world powers to urge restraint.
Both countries have ordered air strikes over the last two days, the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have done so, while ground forces have exchanged fire in more than a dozen locations, reports Reuters.
Tensions have been running high since at least 40 Indian paramilitary police died in a February 14 suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir, but the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Tuesday when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base.
A senior Indian government source said 300 militants were killed in Tuesday's strike. Pakistan says no one died.
Ground fire
The aerial engagement followed overnight artillery fire by both sides. Pakistan used heavy-calibre weapons along the Line of Control, a spokesman for the Indian defence forces said on Wednesday.
"The Indian Army retaliated for effect and our focused fire resulted in severe destruction to five posts and a number of casualties," the spokesman said.
Five Indian soldiers suffered minor wounds in the shelling that ended on Wednesday morning, he added.
Officials on the Pakistani side said at least four people had been killed and seven wounded, including civilians, with thousands evacuated and schools closed in border areas.
Indian security forces killed two Jaish militants in a gun battle on Wednesday, police said.
Protests
By Wednesday evening, the two top trends on Twitter in India were about the pilot, with many Indians demanding his release under a #BringBackAbhinandan hashtag.
Protesters set ablaze Pakistan's national flag outside the country's embassy in New Delhi yesterday. Police detained some but others ran away, witnesses said.
Claiming to be supporters of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, the dozen men gathered outside the heavily guarded diplomatic mission and shouted "Down with Pakistan" before setting fire to the flag dipped in kerosene.
International concern
The White House urged "both sides to take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation."
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement he had spoken separately with the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers and had urged them to "prioritize direct communication and avoid further military activity."
Pakistan's envoy to the United States Asad Majeed Khan said Islamabad would like to see the Trump administration play a more active role in easing the crisis.
The Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, spoke by telephone with Pakistan's foreign minister and expressed "deep concern."
The United States, Britain and France proposed the United Nations Security Council blacklist Masood Azhar, the head of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, the group that claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack. China is likely to oppose the move.
