Pakistani PM Imran Khan makes chilling nuke hint over India tensions as bloodied Indian pilot is forced to thank Pakistani army for rescuing him from mob

PAKISTANI Prime Minister Imran Khan has made a chilling nuke hint as a bloodied captive Indian pilot is forced to thank the country's army for rescuing him from an angry mob.

During a televised address, Khan asked the chilling question: "Can we afford any miscalculation with the kind of weapons that we have and you have?"

The statement came on a day when both sides had shot down each others warplanes.

In a separate video released on social media a captive Indian pilot, named as Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, is seen sipping a cup of tea with his wounds dressed.

He looks in good spirits and thanks his captors for a "fantastic" cuppa, and says he is being taken care of by the Pakistan army and expected the same gesture for any Pakistani officer by the Indian army.

It was a stark contrast to the previous videos released showing the man being paraded and beaten at a crash site, and interrogated at a Pakistani Air base.

Seemingly in violation to Geneva Convention rules that prohibit public displays of prisoners, the military circulated a video of Varthaman in which he was blindfolded, with his feet and hands tied and blood running down his face.

In the video, he refused to reveal any information about his capture - or captors.

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have reached boiling point after India carried out air strikes against Pakistani militants yesterday in Balakot - located in a remote valley in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The strikes followed a suicide bomb attack on February 14, involving a car packed with explosives, on an Indian security convoy in Pulwama which left 40 soldiers dead.

Relations between the two countries have been fraught since their since independence from Britain in 1947.

There have been three full-scale conflicts since then and only the 1971 war, which was over the liberation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), was not caused by the so-called Kashmir issue.

Both countries, which began developing nuclear weapons in the 1970s, claim control over Muslim-majority Kashmir but only control parts of it.

Military spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said the Pakistan air force had shot down the jets after they crossed the border leading to the capture of two pilots - one of who is reportedly being treated in hospital.

The jihadi-infested Pakistani deep state - headed by the incredibly powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency - is continually working to destabilise India, Dr Alan Mendoza of the Henry Jackson Society told The Sun Online.

But after India appeared to cross Pakistani air space to take out a militant training camp yesterday, the ruling coalition in Islamabad could be pushed into a full-scale conflict and even nuclear war by its agressive security service, Dr Mendoza  says.

The Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which carried out the Valentines Day terror attack, has been allowed to operate inside Pakistan despite being officially banned by the government.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

Dr Mendoza said: "While India has carried out operatrions like this before, I think it's the blatancy of yesterday's strikes which has forced the Pakistani reaction.

"But let's not forget that the situation has arisen because Pakistan has failed to control its own territory.

";They have allowed the jihadists to operate without impunity."

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said senior members of JeM were targeted in yesterday's air strikes.

Today Major Ghafoor confirmed via Twitter that Pakistan had responded by gunning down the two planes.

BOILING POINT

He said: "PAF shot down two Indian aircrafts inside Pakistani airspace".

Pakistan confirmed that it had also carried out its own air strikes in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

One of the aircraft fell on India's side of Kashmir, while the second came down in Pakistani-held territory, and its pilot was captured, he added.

However, India has released a conflicting statement claiming to have shot down a Pakistani Air Force fighter aircraft today.

In the official statement, a Dehli spokesperson said that in the "aerial engagement" India's Air Force had "unfortuntely lost one MiG21."

The spokesperson continued: "The pilot is still missing in action. Pakistan has claimed that he is in their custody. We are ascertaining the facts."

ESCALATING TENSIONS

Officials in Indian-occupied Kashmir said that two pilots and a civilian had died after a Mi-17 transport helicopter crashed in Kashmir, but have not yet confirmed if the aircraft had been shot down by Pakistani forces.

Another police officer, S.P. Pani, said firefighters were at the site in Budgam area where the Indian warplane crashed.

Eyewitnesses said soldiers fired in air to keep residents away from the crash site.

Indian news reports said airports in the Indian portion of Kashmir closed for civilian traffic shortly after the air force jet crashed in the area.

Tensions have been high since the Valentine's Day suicide attack on an Indian paramilitary police convoy, which killed at least 40 soldiers.

India said its retaliatory air strikes yesterday killed several high-ranking militants at a training camp in Balakot - while Pakistan claim the attack left no casualities and caused no material damage.

However, earlier today, Islamabad said mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir killed six civilians and wounded several others.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said Pakistani jets had launched air strikes across the line of control dividing their country and Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan said it had "taken strikes at [a] non-military target, avoiding human loss and collateral damage".

Indian authorities said the Pakistani jets had been pushed back.

Pakistan's foreign ministry says its air strikes were not in "retaliation to continued Indian belligerence".

The ministry said the strikes on Wednesday are aimed at "avoiding human loss and collateral damage."

But in a chilling warning the statement said Pakistanis have "no intention of escalation, but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm.”

The statement continued: “That is why we undertook the action with clear warning and in broad daylight."

What is the Kashmir conflict about?

The region of Kashmir has always been a contentious issue even before India and Pakistan won their independence from Britain.

The local ruler of the region chose India because Kashmir was free to accede to either India or Pakistan.

Many people who live in the region do not want to be controlled by India - they want independence or a union with Pakistan.

The inhabitants of Kashmir are more than 60 per cent Muslim making it the the only state within India where they are in the majority.

There has been conflict in the region since 1989 but fresh violence was sparked after the death of a militant leader in July 2016.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours