[Dawn] Pakistain on Sunday forced an Indian army helicopter to land for having violated its airspace, but later allowed the four officers on board and the helicopter to return after interrogating the officers for a couple of hours, military sources said.They said a lieutenant colonel, two majors and a junior commissioned officer (JCO) were on board the Lama helicopter belonging to the Aviation Corps of the Indian army. The helicopter was deep inside Pak territory when it was intercepted and forced to land in the Olding-Kargil
... three months of unprovoked Pak aggression, over 4000 dead Paks, another victory for India ...
sector near the Line of Control (LoC).
(Rooters news agency quoted Pakistain military front man Major General Athar Abbas
... who is The Very Model of a Modern Major General...
as saying: "The helicopter and four officers on board returned around 5.30pm (1230 GMT) after a contact between the director-general military operations of the two countries."
The Indian defence ministry said the helicopter had returned to Kargil in Indian-ruled Kashmire. "The issue has been resolved," the ministry's front man, Sitanshu Kar, said.
Indian officials said the helicopter had strayed into Pak territory because of bad weather.
"The swift release of the helicopter shows both countries do not want to derail the grinding of the peace processor. Otherwise it could have turned into a major crisis," security analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said.)
"The helicopter was some 20 kilometres inside Pakistain's territory when it was intercepted and forced to land near Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, at about 1pm," an official of the Pakistain Air Force (PAF) said.
During the interrogation, the crew members said the helicopter had strayed because of bad weather and no deliberate attempt had been made to intrude the airspace.
Though Indian planes have violated Pakistain's airspace in the past as well, it was perhaps for the first time that a chopper was forced to land. It was also the first violation of the country's airspace by India, after the May 2 raid by US Navy Seals in Abbottabad which led to the killing of Al Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden
... who can now be reached at RFD Boneyard...
. The incident took place at a time when relations between the two South Asian neighbours have seen an improvement in recent months.
Sources said India had been immediately informed about the incident and an investigation was under way to see if it was a mistake or a deliberate attempt to test Pakistain's defence capabilities.
An official said on the condition of anonymity that in normal circumstances, crew members of a hostile country were not freed in hours, but it had been done to give benefit of doubt because Pakistain did not want to vitiate the atmosphere and derail the composite dialogue process.
The sources said a PAF plane scrambled immediately after spotting the helicopter and at the same time the Air Defence, through its communication system, warned those on board that they would come under fire if they tried to escape.
Directors General Military Operations of the two countries established contact during which the Indian side said it had violated the airspace by mistake.