Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Mar 11: Pakistan threatened New Delhi on Friday over an Indian-made but unnamed high-altitude supersonic item that landed in Pakistani territory. They said that this action will have ‘unpleasant consequences.’
In a statement, Pakistan’s foreign office said it summoned India’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad on Friday to register a complaint over what it called an unjustified breach of its airspace.
Pakistan demanded a probe into the event, which it claimed put passenger aircraft and civilian lives in jeopardy.
In a statement, Pakistan urged India to ‘to be mindful of the unpleasant consequences of such negligence and take effective measures to avoid the recurrence off such violations in future.’
In a press conference late on Thursday night, Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar said, “On 9 March a high-speed flying object was picked up inside Indian territory by air defence operations centre of the Pakistan air force.”
The two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars and had several military skirmishes, the most recent of which occurred in 2019 when their air forces clashed.
He added the military was unsure of the nature of the object, which he said crashed near Mian Channu in eastern Pakistan and originated in Haryana’s Sirsa.
Pakistan has also urged that India reveal the findings of the probe into the incident.
A Reuters inquiry into the matter received no immediate response from the Ministry of External Affairs.
“The flight path of this object endangered many national and international passenger flights both in Indian and Pakistani airspace as well as human life and property of ground,” said Iftikhar.
At the news briefing, a Pakistani air force official claimed the object was being forensically examined and that preliminary examinations indicated it was a surface-to-surface supersonic missile that was unarmed.
He said it flew 124 kilometres (77 miles) across Pakistani airspace before crashing at an altitude of 40,000 feet and a speed of Mach 3.
Iftikhar stated that the military would not draw any conclusions until India provided an explanation, but that Pakistan was outraged by a “flagrant violation” of its airspace.
“Whatever caused this incident to happen, it is for the Indians to explain,” Iftikhar said.
