India confirmed on Saturday it had lost an unmanned plane over Pakistani territory.
”An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a routine flight lost
contact at about 2300 hours (1730 GMT) on June 7 (Friday),” a defence ministry representative said.
”It had fallen about 20 kilometres inside Pakistan territory and in the present state of deployment the use of such UAVs by either side is a routine feature.”
The Indian military would not give further details.
Pakistan said it had shot down an Indian plane that was ”on a reconnaissance and spying mission when it violated the Pakistan air space close to Lahore,” a city of seven million about 30 kilometres north of the Indian state of Punjab.
The plane incident comes as one million Indian and Pakistani troops are stationed on the arch-rivals’ common borders, with New Delhi ruling out a pullback until Islamabad takes stronger action against Muslim rebels it says infiltrate Indian territory to carry out attacks.
Pakistan’s military representative, General Rashid Qureshi, said the air space incursion showed India had no interest in defusing the brewing conflict.
”Despite Pakistan’s best efforts to de-escalate, India in
complete disregard to international norms, continues ceasefire violations by firing across the Line of Control and the Working Boundary, causing civilian casualties.
”India has also violated Pakistani airspace, the proof of which has been the intrusion into Pakistani airspace by an Indian unmanned spy plane,” he told Pakistan’s official news agency APP. – Sapa-AFP