Pakistan has accused India of having launched an unidentified high-altitude supersonic object that violated the country’s airspace and eventually crashed in the eastern province of Mian Channu on Wednesday evening.
“On March 9, a high-speed flying object was picked up inside Indian territory by the air defense operations center of the Pakistan Air Force. 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 on the ground,” the director-general of Pakistan’s inter-service public relations, Babar Iftikhar, said during a press briefing on Thursday.
According to the Pakistani authorities, an initial forensic analysis of the projectile has deduced that it was an Indian unarmed surface-to-surface supersonic missile.
Islamabad has urged New Delhi “to be mindful of the unpleasant consequences of such negligence and to take effective measures to avoid the recurrence of such violations in future.” While condemning the “flagrant violation” of its airspace, Pakistan has committed to refraining from taking any action pending the results of its investigation into the incident.
The Pakistani Foreign Office has summoned India’s chargé d’affaires in Islamabad to demand an explanation. India has not yet responded to the allegations.
India and Pakistan have been fierce rivals since 1947, when India gained independence from the British Empire and was partitioned into separate states. Since then, the two powers have engaged in multiple armed clashes, with the most recent escalation of tensions occurring in 2019, when they were involved in air combat.