Tension rises between India And Pakistan over Kashmir border

India and Pakistan exchanged fire along their contested border in Kashmir on Wednesday, a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a war in 1971.

Tension has been rising since a suicide car bombing by Pakistan- based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on February 14, but the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Tuesday when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base in Pakistan.

India said on Wednesday it lost a combat jet and the pilot was missing while it foiled an attack by Pakistan military planes over the disputed region.

Pakistan said earlier it had shot down two Indian warplanes and had carried out air strikes inside India in retaliation for India’s raid on the suspected militant camp.

The attack targeted Jaish-E-Mohammed (Jem), the group that claimed credit for the suicide attack, but while India said a large number of Jem fighters had been killed, Pakistani officials said the Indian airstrike was a failure and inflicted no casualties.

Although no civilian casualties had been reported, villagers living on the Kashmir border expressed fears for their safety.