Pakistan’s military on Thursday (March 10) said an unidentified high-altitude supersonic object originating in India had crashed in Pakistani territory, in an incident endangering civilian passenger flights, and New Delhi should provide an explanation.
The two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars and have engaged in numerous military clashes, most recently in 2019 which saw the air forces of the two engage in combat.
“On March 9 a high-speed flying object was picked up inside Indian territory by air defence operations centre of the Pakistan air force,” Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar said in a hurriedly-called press conference on Thursday night.
He said the military was not sure of the nature of the object, which crashed near the eastern Pakistani city of Mian Channu and originated from the Indian city of Sirsa, in India’s western Haryana province.
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There was no immediate response from India’s Ministry of External Affairs to a Reuters’ query on the matter sent outside working hours.
“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 of ground,” Iftikhar said.
A Pakistan air force official at the press conference said the object was being analysed forensically and initial studies suggested it was a surface-to-surface supersonic missile, but was unarmed.
He said it travelled at an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,000 metres), at Mach 3, and flew 124km (77 miles) in Pakistani airspace before crashing.
Iftikhar said the military would not jump to conclusions until they got an explanation from India, but said that Pakistan strongly protests against this “flagrant violation” of its airspace.
“Whatever caused this incident to happen, it is for the Indians to explain,” Iftikhar said.