India, Pakistan trade accusations of drone attacks as tensions ramp up
A Pakistani military spokesperson said India's military carried out drone strikes in Pakistan between Wednesday night and Thursday.
The spokesperson said 25 of the unmanned aircraft were shot down, but that two civilians, one in the eastern province of Punjab, were killed.
India's government released a statement accusing Pakistan of using drones and missiles against a number of military targets in the country's north and west from Wednesday night to Thursday.
The statement also said India's military had targeted air defense radars and systems "at a number of locations in Pakistan" on Thursday morning. It claimed that an air defense system in the eastern city of Lahore had been "neutralized."
Media outlets in India are reporting that Pakistan mounted more attacks, including drone strikes, on Thursday night.
Indian and Pakistani military forces stationed in the disputed Kashmir region have also been engaged in sporadic fighting across the de facto boundary between the two countries.
India announced on Wednesday that it had conducted missile attacks on Pakistan and the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir earlier in the day.
India said the strikes had targeted what it called "terrorist infrastructure" in retaliation for a deadly assault by gunmen in the India-controlled part of Kashmir last month.
Pakistan denies India's claim that it was involved in the Kashmir attack.
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Japan Times
3 days ago
- Japan Times
India decries 'saber rattling' after Pakistan army chief's reported nuclear remarks
India on Monday accused its neighbor Pakistan of "saber rattling" and "irresponsibility" after media reports on remarks about nuclear threats in South Asia made by Pakistan's army chief while on a visit to the United States. Indian media reports, citing sources, quoted Pakistan's Field Marshal Asim Munir as saying: "We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us." An excerpt of his speech shared by Pakistani security officials did not include the "nuclear nation" remarks. "Pakistan is a responsible nuclear weapon state with an elaborate command and control structure under full civilian control," a statement from Pakistan's foreign office said. "It has always exercised discipline and restraint, while dealing with the issues of such importance." Munir reportedly made the remarks at a black-tie dinner hosted by a Pakistani-origin businessman in Florida on Saturday, where he spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people. The remarks could not be independently verified. India and Pakistan both possess nuclear weapons and fought their deadliest battle in decades in May, sparked by an attack on tourists the previous month in Indian Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India's foreign ministry, said: "Nuclear saber-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade," adding: "The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks." He said it was also regrettable that the reported remarks should have been made while in a friendly third country. In a version of the speech shared by Pakistani security officials, Munir said: "The (Indian) aggression has brought the region to the brink of a dangerously escalating war, where a bilateral conflict due to any miscalculation will be a grave mistake." Munir was on a visit to the U.S. to attend a farewell event for Gen. Michael Kurilla, the 15th commander of the United States Central Command. India previously lodged a private diplomatic protest with Washington when U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Munir for a lunch at the White House in June. Analysts have said that India's disagreement with Washington over the May 10 ceasefire with Pakistan, and Trump's renewed engagement with Islamabad, have contributed to a recent setback in ties between India and the U.S. under the Trump administration.
Japan Times
04-08-2025
- Japan Times
How Pakistan shot down India's cutting-edge fighter using Chinese gear
Just after midnight on May 7, the screen in the Pakistan Air Force's operations room lit up in red with the positions of dozens of active enemy planes across the border in India. Air Chief Marhall Zaheer Sidhu had been sleeping on a mattress just off that room for days in anticipation of an Indian assault. New Delhi had blamed Islamabad for backing militants who carried out an attack the previous month in Indian Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians. Despite Islamabad denying any involvement, India had vowed a response, which came in the early hours of May 7 with airstrikes on Pakistan. Sidhu ordered Pakistan's prized Chinese-made J-10C jets to scramble. A senior Pakistani Air Force (PAF) official, who was present in the operations room, said Sidhu instructed his staff to target Rafales, a French-made fighter that is the jewel of India's fleet and had never been downed in battle. "He wanted Rafales," said the official. The hourlong fight, which took place in darkness, involved some 110 aircraft, experts estimate, making it the world's largest air battle in decades. The J-10s shot down at least one Rafale, U.S. officials said in May. Its downing surprised many in the military community and raised questions about the effectiveness of Western military hardware against untested Chinese alternatives. Shares of Dassault, which makes the Rafale, dipped after reports the fighter had been shot down. Indonesia, which has outstanding Rafale orders, has said it is now considering purchasing J-10s — a major boost to China's efforts to sell the aircraft overseas. But interviews with two Indian officials and three of their Pakistani counterparts found that the performance of the Rafale wasn't the key problem: Central to its downing was an Indian intelligence failure concerning the range of the China-made PL-15 missile fired by the J-10 fighter. China and Pakistan are the only countries to operate both J-10s, known as Vigorous Dragons, and PL-15s. The faulty intelligence gave the Rafale pilots a false sense of confidence they were out of Pakistani firing distance, which they believed was only around 150 kilometers, the Indian officials said, referring to the widely cited range of PL-15's export variant. A Rafale fighter jet taxis on the tarmac during its induction ceremony at an air force station in Ambala, India, in 2020. | REUTERS "We ambushed them," the PAF official said, adding that Islamabad conducted an electronic warfare assault on New Delhi's systems in an attempt to confuse Indian pilots. Indian officials dispute the effectiveness of those efforts. "The Indians were not expecting to be shot at," said Justin Bronk, an air warfare expert at London's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank. "And the PL-15 is clearly very capable at long range." The PL-15 that hit the Rafale was fired from around 200 km away, according to Pakistani officials, and even farther according to Indian officials. That would make it among the longest-range air-to-air strikes recorded. India's defense and foreign ministries did not return requests for comment about the intelligence mistakes. New Delhi hasn't acknowledged a Rafale being shot down, but France's air chief told reporters in June that he had seen evidence of the loss of that fighter and two other aircraft flown by India, including a Russian-made Sukhoi. A top Dassault executive also told French lawmakers that month that India had lost a Rafale in operations, though he didn't have specific details. Pakistan's military referred to past comments by a spokesperson who said that its professional preparedness and resolve was more important than the weaponry it had deployed. China's defense ministry did not respond to questions. Dassault and UAC, the manufacturer of the Sukhoi, also did not return requests for comment. 'Situational awareness' Reporters spoke to eight Pakistani and two Indian officials to piece together an account of the aerial battle, which marked the start of four days of fighting between the two nuclear-armed neighbors that caused alarm in Washington. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters. Not only did Islamabad have the element of surprise with its missiles' range, the Pakistani and Indian officials said, but it managed to more efficiently connect its military hardware to surveillance on the ground and in the air, providing it with a clearer picture of the battlefield. Such networks, known as "kill chains," have become a crucial element of modern warfare. A damaged portion of an administration block at the Government Health and Education complex, after it was hit by an Indian strike in Muridke, near Lahore, Pakistan, on May 7 | REUTERS Four Pakistani officials said they created a "kill chain," or a multidomain operation, by linking air, land and space sensors. The network included a Pakistani-developed system, Data Link 17, which connected Chinese military hardware with other equipment, including a Swedish-made surveillance plane, two Pakistani officials said. The system allowed the J-10s flying closer to India to obtain radar feeds from the surveillance plane cruising further away, meaning the Chinese-made fighters could turn their radars off and fly undetected, according to experts. Pakistan's military did not respond to requests for comment on this point. New Delhi is trying to set up a similar network, the Indian officials said, adding that their process was more complicated because the country sourced aircraft from a wide range of exporters. Retired U.K. Air Marshall Greg Bagwell, now a fellow at RUSI, said the episode didn't conclusively prove the superiority of either Chinese or Western air assets but it showed the importance of having the right information and using it. "The winner in this was the side that had the best situational awareness,' said Bagwell. 'Change in tactics' After India in the early hours of May 7 struck targets in Pakistan that it called terrorist infrastructure, Sidhu ordered his squadrons to switch from defense to attack. Five PAF officials said India had deployed some 70 planes, which was more than they had expected and provided Islamabad's PL-15s with a target-rich environment. India has not said how many planes were used. A Chinese J-10 fighter aircraft performs flight maneuvers as part of the International Army Games 2021, at the Dubrovichi range outside Ryazan, Russia, in August 2021. | REUTERS The May 7 battle marked the first big air contest of the modern era in which weaponry is used to strike targets beyond visual range, said Bagwell, noting both India and Pakistan's planes remained well within their airspace across the duration of the fight. Five Pakistani officials said an electronic assault on Indian sensors and communications systems reduced the situational awareness of the Rafale's pilots. The two Indian officials said the Rafales were not blinded during the skirmishes and that Indian satellites were not jammed. But they acknowledged that Pakistan appeared to have disrupted the Sukhoi, whose systems New Delhi is now upgrading. Other Indian security officials have deflected questions away from the Rafale, a centerpiece of India's military modernization, to the orders given to the air force. India's defense attaché in Jakarta told a university seminar that New Delhi had lost some aircraft "only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack (Pakistan's) military establishments and their air defenses." India's chief of defense staff, Gen. Anil Chauhan, previously said that Delhi quickly "rectified tactics" after the initial losses. A Pakistani soldier stands at the premises of the Bilal Mosque after it was hit by an Indian strike in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on May 7. | REUTERS After the May 7 air battle, India began targeting Pakistani military infrastructure and asserting its strength in the skies. Its Indian-made BrahMos supersonic cruise missile repeatedly sliced through Pakistan's air defenses, according to officials on both sides. On May 10, India said it struck at least nine air bases and radar sites in Pakistan. It also hit a surveillance plane parked in a hangar in southern Pakistan, according to Indian and Pakistani officials. A ceasefire was agreed later that day, after U.S. officials held talks with both sides. 'Live inputs' In the aftermath of the episode, India's deputy army chief, Lt. Gen. Rahul Singh, accused Pakistan of receiving "live inputs' from China during the battles, implying radar and satellite feeds. He did not provide evidence and Islamabad denies the allegation. When asked at a July briefing about Beijing's military partnership with Pakistan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters the work was "part of the normal cooperation between the two countries and does not target any third party." Beijing's air chief, Lt. Gen. Wang Gang, visited Pakistan in July to discuss how Islamabad had used Chinese equipment to put together the kill chain for the Rafale, two PAF officials said. China did not respond when asked about that interaction. The Pakistani military said in a statement in July that Wang had expressed "keen interest in learning from PAF's battle-proven experience in Multi Domain Operations."
Japan Times
29-07-2025
- Japan Times
Delayed pricing policy for cleaner ethanol keeps India burning food for fuel
India's push for ethanol, mixing crop-based biofuel with petrol to run vehicles, is being stalled by slow progress in making an environmentally cleaner version of the fuel, producers and experts say. Standing in the way is the government's failure to pay more for cleaner ethanol, which is made from waste but costs more to produce, they say. Second-generation (2G) ethanol, which uses crop waste instead of valuable food crops, offers a way to cut planet-heating emissions, reduce oil imports and avoid making fuel from food needed for human consumption. But producers say the government must pay a separate, appropriate price for the more costly 2G ethanol. "Without a separate pricing policy for 2G ethanol, the economics do not work," said Monish Ahuja, managing director of Punjab Renewable Energy Systems (PRESPL), which supplies farm waste to 2G plants. Investors will not join in unless they see returns that reflect the higher cost of making the biofuel, Ahuja said. "That's the bottleneck," he said. The Indian government wants all petrol sold in the country to contain 20% ethanol by October 2025, and has ramped up ethanol production by diverting food crops like sugarcane, maize and surplus rice to make fuel known as first-generation (1G) ethanol. The 1G production reduces the availability of grains for people and cattle and shifts land away from food production. India allocated a record 5.2 million metric tons of rice for 1G ethanol, nearly 9% of global rice shipments, in the course of a year spanning 2024 and 2025. The 2G ethanol can be made by breaking down tough plant waste like straw or husk into fermentable sugars using newer technology. It also could help curb stubble burning, a key cause of air pollution in India, in which crop remnants are set ablaze post-harvest. So far, 2G ethanol makes up very little — some say less than 1% — of India's annual biofuel production, which the government said topped 7 billion liters in October 2024. The lack of 2G ethanol production is mostly due to a lack of differentiated procurement pricing by the government and higher production costs, experts say. The Indian government does not make specific figures available on its 2G ethanol production. The government has considered a separate rate for 2G ethanol, according to minutes of a high-level committee meeting from July 2023. The price was expected in April 2025, according to reports in Indian media, but no announcement has been made. To promote the newer fuel, the Indian government launched a national program in 2019, with a budget of 1.97 billion Indian rupees ($227.76 million) to provide financial assistance for setting up commercial and demonstration-scale 2G ethanol plants. However, of the 12 plants it set out to establish across India, only one demonstration plant is operational. The Indian ministry responsible for biofuel production did not respond to requests for comment. Among the challenges in scaling up 2G ethanol production are the costly enzymes, pre-treatment of waste and logistics required by the process, said Y.B. Ramakrishna, senior vice-president of the Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE). India generates hundreds of millions of metric tons of agricultural waste annually, which could fuel hundreds of 2G biofuel plants, experts say. But the waste needs to be collected, dried, stored and transported from small farms scattered across wide areas, said Ramya Natarajan, a research scientist at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP). The costs can add up, making financial support and pricing clarity for 2G ethanol critical, experts said. "At least for the initial three to four years, a higher price is essential," Ramakrishna said. Without a separate price for 2G and a target for its procurement, even financially ready firms are unable to raise funds from banks or commit to long-term plans, Ahuja said. Unlike 1G ethanol, which has a guaranteed market through oil marketing companies' procurement, the lack of a separate 2G ethanol blending target leaves the greener alternative to compete for customers with the cheaper 1G ethanol. Contained in India's ethanol blending policy of 20% ethanol in petrol by the end of 2025, there is no subtarget for 2G ethanol blending to help guarantee production.
