Pakistan deploying fighter jets to Skardu near Ladakh, India watching closely: Sources

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing tensions with Pakistan over the abrogation of Article 370, Pakistani forces have started moving equipment to their forward bases close to Ladakh.

"Three C-130 transport aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force was airfield used on Saturday 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," government sources told ANI.

Sources said the equipment moved to the forward operating base could be support equipment for fighter aircraft operations. Pakistanis are most likely to move in their JF-17 fighter planes to the Skardu airfield, they said.

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 they can see almost the entire length and breadth of Pakistan.

The Pakistanis use an older version of the C-130 transport aircraft supplied by the Americans a long time ago and 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.

Sources said the Pakistan Air Force was planning to conduct an exercise of its Air Force and Army elements and the move of shifting planes to the forward base could also be a part of it. Skardu is a forward operating base of the Pakistan Air Force and it uses it to support its Army operations on the border with India.

Pakistan has been trying 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.