‘People are dying, we are not safe': Britons in Kashmir beg to leave
British families stranded in Kashmir have begged to be evacuated from a 'holiday turned nightmare' as Pakistan and India exchange heavy gunfire.
Khola Riaz, who lives in Luton, travelled last month to Kotli, a mountainous town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, with her four-year-old son, Esa, to visit her unwell father. But within a week, her parents' hometown had become the centre of a military standoff between the two nuclear-armed states.
Several British families in Kotli, which straddles the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, have said they were forced into a lockdown as at least five civilians were killed in an intense night of artillery exchanges.
• India-Pakistan live: nations strike airbases and move closer to war
'The bombing
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
India finally admits it lost fighter jets in clash with Pakistan – but refuses to say how many
India has confirmed for the first time that it lost fighter jets during its brief military conflict with Pakistan earlier in May, though the country still refuses to clarify the number or nature of aircraft it lost. New Delhi and Islamabad stepped back from the brink of all-out war following their worst military escalation in decades, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians in cross-border shelling, as well as drone attacks by both sides. Pakistan 's military claimed it shot down six Indian Air Force jets, including three French-made Rafale aircraft, during the initial clashes. Both India and Pakistan claimed to have downed each other's fighter jets in a dogfight that reportedly involved over 125 aircraft, making it the largest aerial battle since the Second World War. General Anil Chauhan, India's chief of defence staff, admitted India suffered initial losses in the air, but declined to give details. 'What is important is that... not the jet being downed, but why they were being downed,' he told Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. However, he said Pakistan's claims of downing six Indian warplanes were "absolutely incorrect". 'The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range,' Gen Chauhan said. In separate remarks to Reuters in Singapore he said that after rectifying tactics, "we went back on the 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit air bases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes'. The Indian air force "flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordinances on the 10th", he said. India has previously said its missiles and drones struck at least eight Pakistani air bases across the country that day, including one near the capital Islamabad. India's director general of air operations, Air Marshal AK Bharti, had told a press conference earlier in the month that "losses are a part of combat" and that India had downed some Pakistani jets. Islamabad has denied it suffered any losses of planes but has acknowledged its air bases suffered some hits, describing the impact as minimal. Some of the attacks were reportedly against bases near Pakistan's nuclear facility in Kirana Hills of Punjab province, but the Indian military has said the facility itself was not targeted. "Most of the strikes were delivered with pinpoint accuracy, some even to a metre, to whatever was our selected mean point of impact," Gen Chauhan said. Gen Chauhan and Pakistan's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, have both said there was no danger at any time during the conflict that nuclear weapons were considered. "I think there's a lot of space before that nuclear threshold is crossed, a lot of signalling before that, I think nothing like that happened," Gen Chauhan said. "There's a lot of space for conventional operations which has been created, and this will be the new norm." "It's my personal view that the most rational people are people in uniform when conflict takes place," he added. "During this operation, I found both sides displaying a lot of rationality in their thoughts as well as actions. So why should we assume that in the nuclear domain there will be irrationality on someone else's part?" The conflict began after India struck alleged militant hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir to avenge the deaths of 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, killed in a terror attack in India-administered Kashmir on 22 April. New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing the gunmen who carried out the massacre. Islamabad denied the charge and sought an independent investigation. The Indian strikes escalated the tensions into a military conflict as the two sides exchanged heavy fire along their de facto border in the restive Kashmir region as well as missile and drone strikes on military installations. The Indian military claimed to have killed nearly 100 militants with its overnight strikes and 35-40 personnel of Pakistan's armed forces in subsequent action along the de facto border. The Pakistani army said on Tuesday that the clash with India had left 11 soldiers and 40 civilians dead. A Pakistani minister last week claimed their armed forces had killed 40-50 Indian soldiers. The intense four-day period of fighting came to a halt with a ceasefire announced by both governments following talks between their national security advisers. US president Donald Trump has claimed credit for brokering the truce, though Indian officials have quietly rowed back against the idea that his intervention was pivotal.
The Courier
7 hours ago
- The Courier
Controversial Perthshire national park bid back in play as rival plan scrapped
Hopes have been revived for a new national park in Highland Perthshire. Perth and Kinross Council's 'Tay Forest' project was mothballed last summer when Galloway was named the preferred location for Scotland's third national park. But the Galloway bid was scrapped this week following 'significant opposition'. And that's raised the prospect of the Perthshire national park proposal being resurrected. The council told The Courier it is following events at Holyrood. 'We are awaiting further information from the Scottish Government,' said a spokesman. Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon was asked about the chances for a Perthshire national park when she announced the Galloway scheme had hit the buffers on Thursday. Mid Scotland and Fife Green MSP Mark Ruskell said communities in Perthshire had shown 'majority public support' for the bid, despite an 'aggressive misinformation campaign'. And he asked: 'Will the government now re-engage with that bid for Scotland's third national park? 'Or has it simply given up on the idea altogether?' Ms Gougeon insisted the government was still minded to establish more national parks, providing it gets the process right. 'We reached the stage of introducing the proposal to designate Galloway as a national park only because it met all the criteria that had been established and consulted on,' she added. 'We are not looking to do that at the moment, but we remain open to doing so in the future.' The Perthshire national park bid was ruled out of the running by the Scottish Government last July. It would have stretched across almost 3,000 square kilometres of Perthshire, taking in the towns of Aberfeldy, Comrie, Crieff, Dunkeld and Pitlochry. The council held an eight-week consultation on the Tay Forest proposal and received around 350 responses to its survey. More than half of respondents (56.8%) agreed or strongly agreed with the idea. But critics said national park policies – such as beaver re-introduction – conflicted with the interests of local farmers and managers. The Tayside and Central Scotland Moorland Group branded the consultation response 'woeful' and mounted an angry protest outside the council's headquarters. Aberfeldy Community Council was supportive of the national park bid. Its chairman Victor Clements says the group will watch the next steps with interest. But he suggests there are other ways to invest in nature conservation without adding more layers of management. 'Instead of funding the administrative structures of a new national park, give the equivalent budget to Perth and Kinross Council, and let them fund nature conservation initiatives and a ranger service directly,' said Mr Clements. 'The council could also support farmers and landowners in doing the things they do want to do, as they have shown they can do in the past with the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) scheme and other grant programmes.' The SNP signed up to a new national park as part of the power-sharing Bute House agreement with the Scottish Greens. It has since been scrapped too.
Reuters
9 hours ago
- Reuters
India says changed tactics worked well in conflict with Pakistan
SINGAPORE, May 31 (Reuters) - India switched tactics after suffering losses in the air on the first day of conflict with Pakistan earlier this month and established a decisive advantage before the neighbours announced a ceasefire three days later, India's highest ranking general said on Saturday. The heaviest fighting in decades between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan was sparked by an April 22 attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them tourists. New Delhi blamed the incident on "terrorists" backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad. On May 7, Indian jets bombed what New Delhi called "terrorist infrastructure" sites across the border. Pakistan has said it downed six Indian planes, including at least three Rafale fighters, in the initial clashes. The ceasefire was announced on May 10 after bitter fighting in which both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery. General Anil Chauhan, India's chief of defence staff, said in an interview that India suffered initial losses in the air, but declined to give details. "What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we'll do after that," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, referring to the Pakistani claim of downing jets. "So we rectified tactics and then went back on the 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit air bases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes." The Indian air force "flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordinances on the 10th", he said. India has previously said its missiles and drones struck at least eight Pakistani air bases across the country that day, including one near the capital Islamabad. The Pakistan military says that India did not fly its fighter jets again in the conflict after suffering losses on May 7. India's director general of air operations, Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, had told a press conference earlier in the month that "losses are a part of combat" and that India had downed some Pakistani jets. Islamabad has denied it suffered any losses of planes but has acknowledged its air bases suffered some hits although losses were minimal. Some of the attacks were on bases near Pakistan's nuclear facilities, but they themselves were not targeted, media reports have said. "Most of the strikes were delivered with pinpoint accuracy, some even to a metre, to whatever was our selected mean point of impact," Chauhan said. Chauhan, and Pakistan's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza, have both said there was no danger at any time during the conflict that nuclear weapons were considered. "I think there's a lot of space before that nuclear threshold is crossed, a lot of signalling before that, I think nothing like that happened," Chauhan said. "There's a lot of space for conventional operations which has been created, and this will be the new norm. "It's my personal view that the most rational people are people in uniform when conflict takes place," he added. "During this operation, I found both sides displaying a lot of rationality in their thoughts as well as actions. So why should we assume that in the nuclear domain there will be irrationality on someone else's part?" Chauhan also said that although Pakistan is closely allied with China, which borders India in the north and east, there was no sign of any actual help from Beijing during the conflict. "While this was unfolding from (April) 22nd onwards, we didn't find any unusual activity in the operational or tactical depth of our northern borders, and things were generally all right." Asked whether China may have provided any satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence to Pakistan during the conflict, Chauhan said such imagery was commercially available and could have been procured from China as well as other sources. He added that while hostilities had ceased, the Indian government had made it clear it would "respond precisely and decisively should there be any further terror attacks emanating from Pakistan." "So that has its own dynamics as far the armed forces are concerned. It will require us to be prepared 24/7."
