Amid the ongoing tensions between the two countries India and Pakistan over the prohibition of Article 370, Pakistani forces have started moving equipment to their forward bases close to Ladakh.
According to government sources, “On Saturday, three C-130 transport aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force was used to ferry equipment to their Skardu airbase opposite the Union Territory of Ladakh. The Indian agencies concerned are keeping a close eye on the movement of Pakistanis along with the border areas.”
Sources further added that the equipment moved to the forward operating base could be a piece of support equipment for the fighter aircraft operations. Pakistanis are to move in their JF-17 fighter planes to the Skardu airfield, most probably.
The Indian intelligence agencies along with the Air Force and Army are keeping a close watch on the movement of the Pakistani Air Force as the entire length and breadth of Pakistan are visible to them.
Sources said that the Pakistanis used an older version of the C-130 transport aircraft supplied by the Americans a long time ago. One of their military rulers Gen Zia Ul Haq was also killed in power when the C-130 in which he was travelling crashed in August 1988 due to a bomb explosion.
According to the sources, the Pakistan Air Force was planning to conduct an exercise of its Air Force and Army elements and it is possible that the move of shifting planes to the forward base could be a part of it.
Skardu is a forward operating base of the Pakistan Air Force and has been used by them to support its Army operations on the border with India.
Pakistan is making sure that no stones are unturned in order to make a big issue out of India’s decision of scrapping Article 370 and bifurcating Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
