India-Pakistan air strikes: Locations targeted by PAF home to many brigades of Indian Army's Northern Command

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated on Wednesday, a day after the Indian Air Force (IAF) destroyed a major Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a claim Pakistan denies. While Islamabad has maintained that India violated the Line of Control (LoC) but didn’t inflict any casualties on its side, it emphasised that it has the right to retaliate in defence. [caption id=“attachment_6163821” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  These locations have a number of Indian Army formations under Northern Command.[/caption] Since early on Wednesday, there have been multiple reports of ceasefire violations as well as an encounter in Shopian, where two suspected JeM militants were gunned down. There have also been reports of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jets violating Indian airspace over Rajouri and Poonch and shooting down and IAF jet across the border, but India has denied this claim. Police sources in Rajouri, around 150 kilometres from Srinagar, said  PAF fighters jets dropped bombs at a number of locations in Kashmir around 10 am on Wednesday. These include Nadian, Lam and Keri in Rajouri district and Hamirpur area of Bhimber Gali in Nowshera. IAF jets were patrolling the airspace, and local residents said they had seen a PAF airplane on fire across the LoC headed towards Lam Valley. These locations are significant in the context of the escalating India-Pakistan tensions as they have a number of Indian Army formations under the Northern Command, especially Bhimber Gali. The Northern Command, with its headquarters at Udhampur, is responsible for overseeing defence operations in the northern borders with Pakistan and China with its three corps:  XIV Corps (Leh), XV Corps (Srinagar) and XVI Corps (Nagrota). The XIV Corps is responsible for Ladakh and Kargil and intelligence about enemy positions near the LoC with Pakistan. The XVI Corps handles the stretch from LoC and the Line of Actual Control with China, from Kargil to Siachen. The XV Corps is responsible for military action in the Valley.