Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, Director General (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), held a press conference in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
The press conference was called after a “projectile”, initially perceived to be a private plane, crashed in Mian Channu, on Wednesday night.
Initial tactical operations are currently underway and the Armed Forces will soon get to the bottom of this incident, he said.
He said, “On March 9, at 6:43 pm, a high-speed flying object was picked up inside the Indian territory. From the initial course, it deviated and entered Pakistan territory and fell in Pakistani territory, causing some damage to civilian installations but no loss of life was reported.”
“The flight path endangered civilians in both Pakistan and India. India must explain what caused this; this reflects poorly on Indian aviation,” he said, adding that this could have resulted in a major aviation disaster.
Pakistan strongly protests the “flagrant violation”, he remarked.
Prior to the DG ISPR’s announcement, rumors surfaced of a small training plane crashing on Thursday during a routine flight in Mian Channu, a village in Punjab’s Khanewal district. According to reports at the time, the plane was doing routine training when it crashed near Toll Plaza in Mian Channu. These reports were, of course, erroneous.
