India will respond firmly to Pak escalation, Jaishankar tells Rubio

India is committed to a proportionate response to the terrorist attack at Pahalgam but any escalation on part of Pakistan will be met firmly, External Affair minister S Jaishankar told United States Scretary of State Marco Rubio during a conversation on May 8.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the conversation saw Jaishankar express India’s appreciation for the US offer to work alongside to counter terrorism. The US readout mentioned that Rubio urged de-escalation of hostilities and Jaishankar while acknowledging the sentiment made it evident that onus lies of Pakistan to observe restraint taper down hostile actions rather than prolong conflict.

The message, read between the lines, is that US and other powers must convey India’s preparedness to respond to any escalation with strong counter-measures to Pakistan in an unambiguous manner.

At the briefing Col Sophiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said Pakistan had breached Indian airspace at 36 locations from Jammu and Kashmir to Gujarat all along the western borders by launching 300-400 drone attacks. These intrusions were, however, thwarted by “kinetic and non-kinetic” India responses, which suggests use of jammers and other electronic air defence measures.

None of the attempted drone strikes succeeded, once again indicating improvements in the integrated air defence systems since the Pakistan air force’s counter strike on February 27, 2019, following the Indian air raid on the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad’s seminary and training campus at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunwa.

In response India used similar category of weapons to attack four Pakistan air defence systems, one of which was incapacitated. The drones used by Pakistan are of Turkish make.

Col Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh said Pakistan was deliberately using civilian air traffic as a “shield” at a time when air space along the India-Pakistan border was unsafe. A civilian aircraft from Dhammam landed at Lahore on May 8 evening despite a state of high alert. The officers were hinting at Pakistan looking to use a civilian aircraft as fodder to create an international incident by accusing India of shooting down a non-military plane.

The officers said all air carriers should be aware that it was dangerous to fly along the India-Pakistan border and pointed to the absence of air traffic on the Indian side.

Asked about the death of Jaish terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar, a brother of the group’s chief Maulana Azhar Masood, in the Indian strike of the proscribed outfit’s Bahawalpur headquarters, Misri said it was part of the tragic tale of American journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder. The British-Pakistani jihadi Omar Sheikh was responsible for the murder but Rauf was a conspirator in the kidnapping, torture and the video recorded beheading of Pearl.

Misri said Jaishankar has spoken to counterparts in United Kingdom and Norway about the situation along the western border.

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