The report comes as heavy cross-border firing and shelling continues between India and Pakistan, which have seen another wave of escalation in the seven decades-long conflict since mid-February.
During a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on Tuesday, Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the three branches of the country’s defence forces — Army, Air Force, and Navy — were ready for another action against Pakistan, India TV News reported.
Modi reportedly asked the military to make sure that no civilians died the neighbouring country and that the targets be military-related.
Neither India’s Defence Ministry, nor the Modi government has confirmed the reports yet.
The development comes just a day after local media cited the Director-General of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Public Relations as saying that Islamabad was entitled to use any means of self-defence — a claim which followed weeks of denial that Pakistan had used a US-built F-16 in a 27 February dogfight with India:
The militaries of the nuclear arms-wielding nations have come up with competing claims regarding the aerial combat on 27 February over the Line of Control in the disputed area of Kashmir: while Islamabad alleged it had brought down two Indian planes, New Delhi admitted to the loss of only one of its aircraft and made a counter-claim, saying it had destroyed a Pakistani F-16.
Pakistan has flatly denied that US-made F-16s were either deployed or lost, while India claimed that Islamabad could have violated the fighter jet’s sale deal with the United States.