Pakistan’s air force closed a major highway on Thursday to let it practice landing jets on the road, in what it said was routine training not related to heightened tension with India after a deadly attack in the disputed Kashmir region.
The attack in the frontier town of Uri has raised new fears of military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan has rejected the allegation and accused India of apportioning blame before the incident had been investigated properly.
On Thursday, traffic on Pakistan’s busy main highway between Islamabad, the capital, and the eastern city of Lahore was diverted to an older mountain road during the two-day air force exercise, dubbed High Mark.
“They landed on the road in this, yes. That is something they have been doing for years,” Pakistan Air Force spokesman Commodore Javed Mohammad Ali said. The drill was needed “in case your runways get damaged or they are not available for you,” he added. The exercise was not ordered in response to recent tensions with India and the timing was a coincidence, he said.
“This exercise, High Mark, is not done overnight just like that,” he said, describing it as “a routine training matter”.
Another security official, however, said the Pakistani military was on high alert in case India decided to retaliate for the Uri attack with cross-border military force.
So far, India’s military response to the Uri attack has been limited to skirmishes near the Line of Control separating the countries in Kashmir.
The Indian army said on Thursday it had foiled two attempts by militants to infiltrate into Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday night.
