By Zahid Rafiq and Riyaz ul Khaliq
SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir / ANKARA (AA) - A day after India carried out airstrikes in Pakistan, an Indian fighter jet crashed in Indian-controlled Kashmir Wednesday, with both pilots and a civilian feared dead, but Pakistan denied any responsibility.
Alok Nagpure, senior police superintendent in Budgam, confirmed to Anadolu Agency that three bodies had been found, adding that an Indian Air Force team is coming to inspect the wreckage.
Reporting that earlier they had downed two other Indian jets near Kashmir’s Line of Control (LoC) de facto border, Pakistani officials said they had nothing to do with the crash in Budgam, deep inside Indian-controlled Kashmir.
“There are reports of another Indian jet crashing a bit deep inside [Indian-administered Kashmir], but we did not engage with it,” Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor told a press conference in Islamabad.
Pakistani forces had brought down two other Indian air force (IAF) fighter jets which violated the LoC and entered Pakistani airspace, Ghafoor said.
“One IAF [jet] fell on our side [and] one fell on the other side” of the LoC, said Ghafoor. “And two [IAF] pilots who fell to the ground were arrested by our forces.” One was injured and taken to hospital, he said.
Earlier today India closed major airports in Jammu and Kashmir and Leh -- all part of the disputed Kashmir region -- as well as Dehradun to civilian flights.
The action comes amid heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors, triggered earlier this month over a terrorist attack in Kashmir that killed 44 Indian soldiers.
Indian jets were heard flying over Kashmir all through the night, with sources saying that lights at all major army installations had been switched off, fearing retaliatory airstrikes by Pakistan.