Indian Air Force's (IAF) Mirage 2000 ground attack aircraft swooping down on a major terror target in Balakot across the line of control (LoC) in retaliatory surgical strike to avenge Pulwama suicide attack have jolted the world media despite the preoccupation with US President Donald Trump's forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kin Jong-un in Hanoi later in the week.
While Pakistani media generally stuck to Islamabad's version of the eventsas a violation of the nation's airspace, China's Xinhua news agency and China Daily have ignored the incident.
Pakistani The News website carries Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's remarks to media that Pakistan reserves the right to an appropriate response to Indian intrusion as it is a violation of LoC. The minister was just out of a meeting attended by senior diplomats and former foreign secretaries in the wake of the Indian attacks.
BBC News website stuck to the Pakistani version of Pakistani Air Force (PAF) scrambling interceptors after IAF combat aircraft violated the nation's airspace. The report quoted military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor's tweet: "Indian Air Force violated Line of Control. Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back. Details to follow." The tweet said Indian aircraft "released [a] payload in haste... near Balakot." The report citing IAF sources said IAF confirmed "to the BBC that strikes had been conducted."
Qatar-based Al Jazeera website cited Indian sources saying Indian jets struck terror camps inside Pakistan. The strapline of the report quoted the Pakistani military's claim that there were no casualties. The broadcaster said in the report the attack escalates tension between the two South Asian nations.
UAE's Dubai-based Gulf News said on its website 12 Indian Mirage 2000 fighter jets crossed over the LoC and bombed targets on the side of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The report carried the update of Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale claiming that it was a "pre-emptive non-military strike" against a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp.
Abu Dhabi-based The National carries a situation piece pegged on the second surgical strike to argue how dangerous the situation between the two nuclear-armed rivals could become if allowed to become a full-blown conflict.
The website of Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post prominently displayed the Indian claim of a retaliatory surgical strike on Balakot quoting the first tweet of India's minister of state for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The report also carries Gokhale's remarks regarding the retaliatory nature of the airstrikes.
The Australian echoes the Indian version of surgical strike destroying terror targets inside Pakistani Kashmir while Singapore-based Strait Times website carries New Delhi-datelined report about the Indian strikes offloading 1,000kg of payload.
