Pakistan’s defense minister said on Wednesday that he would welcome further U.S. efforts to help defuse his country’s crisis with India and praised President Trump for calling for a quick end to the conflict.
India said early Wednesday that its forces had struck nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in response to a terrorist attack in Kashmir last month. Pakistani officials said at least 20 people were killed in the airstrikes.
While Pakistani officials have said that Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the defense minister, struck a different tone, suggesting that Pakistan had already responded by shooting down Indian planes and drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles or U.A.V.s.
He said his country would refrain from further action if India took no additional steps to attack and agreed to an independent investigation.
Mr. Asif said Pakistan’s Air Force had shot down five Indian planes and two drones. In addition, Pakistani jamming devices and electronic warfare equipment stopped some Indian missile launches and forced other planes to make emergency landings, he said.
Indian officials and Western diplomats, as well as witnesses and local media, have said that two or three Indian planes went down on the Indian side of the border.
“We could have taken down 10 planes yesterday,” Mr. Asif said. “We had the opportunity, but we restricted it to five planes and two U.A.V.s because we didn’t want to expand this situation.”
Mr. Trump’s comments on Tuesday that he hopes the conflict “ends very quickly” were helpful, Mr. Asif said. He added that he would welcome further U.S. efforts to bring “down the temperature in the region.”
Tensions between India and Pakistan have been spiraling since the terrorist attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir, in which gunmen killed 26 people, almost all Hindus.
American diplomats have been in contact with Pakistani and Indian officials. And Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has been in frequent contact with Indian officials to defuse the situation, American officials said.
Immediately after the attack, India said the attackers had “cross-border linkages.” Pakistan disputed the charge and called for an international investigation.
Indian officials said the strikes early Wednesday in Pakistan-controlled territory were aimed at destroying terrorist training camps. The Pakistani government has denied the sites had any connection with terrorist groups.
Around midnight local time, India launched 78 planes to attack sites in Kashmir and Punjab, Mr. Asif said. The planes did not cross into Pakistan territory, he added.
Mr. Asif said the Pakistani armed services reserved the right to strike at India if they detected the Indians were preparing for a further attack, but he also said Pakistan was ready to de-escalate.
“Restraint is still being applied,” Mr. Asif said. “But if the same situation arises tonight, the situation could flare up very easily.”
The defense minister reiterated his call for an international investigation and said he hoped U.S. officials would push India to accept such an inquiry.
“The administration could suggest a commission of two or three other countries,” he said. “A credible body could be set up. We don’t want this to hang in limbo.”
Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons, something that has increased American officials’ concerns. But Mr. Asif said he did not “foresee any risk, at the moment” of the dispute escalating to a nuclear conflict.
The nuclear capabilities of the two countries, he said, was a stabilizing factor preventing disputes from escalating too much, but, he added, “the risk is always there. You can’t deny that.”
