The Battle India Doesn’t Want to Admit Happened Over Kashmir

The debris of an aircraft lies in the compound of a mosque at Pampore in Pulwama district of Indian-administered Kashmir, on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 [File: Dar Yasin/AP Photo]

This article challenges India’s claim that Pakistani forces shot down an Indian aircraft from Pakistani territory. It examines Pakistan’s official position that the aerial engagement took place in Kashmiri airspace, where 20 to 25 Pakistani jets engaged Indian aircraft in a brief but intense dogfight. Analyzing the geography, timelines, radar accounts, and the disputed status of Kashmir, this piece highlights how an air battle over a disputed territory has been politically recast as a cross-loc attack. The article aims to separate military facts from media narratives and highlight the legal and strategic implications of fighting in contested skies. 

Earlier, Pakistan had said that it shot down Indian jets within its territory, but some Indian military experts say that Pakistani jets crossed the Pir Panjal mountains and committed air violations in some areas of Kashmir three times in an hour, almost throughout Kashmir. On the other hand, the Pakistan Air Force says that the Indian jets, after attacking Pakistan, fled towards Kashmir instead of India, which is why Pakistani jets chased them and shot them down in Kashmir.

Pakistan India air clash,

Kashmir airspace dispute,

Pakistani jets Kashmir,

India Pakistan aerial engagement,

Cross-border airstrike allegations,

India allegations against Pakistan airstrike,

Pakistan’s global defense exports jump

In the past 6 months, 16 countries including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe

• Official expressions of interest

• Negotiations for procurement, or

• Initiation of initial procurement process

These developments show that Pakistan is rapidly becoming a global defense supplier, especially in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.