Pakistan deploying fighter jets at airbase near Ladakh, India on high alert: Report

Tensions are running high between India and Pakistan following ever since Modi government announced scrapping of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and now some reports claim that Pakistani Air Forces have started moving equipment to their forward bases close to Ladakh.   

"Three C-130 transport aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force were used on Saturday to ferry equipment to their Skardu air base opposite the Union Territory of Ladakh. The Indian agencies concerned are keeping a close eye on the movement of Pakistanis along the border areas," government sources told ANI.

The ANI in its reports said that Pakistan has moved equipment to the forward operating base using an older version of the C-130 transport aircraft supplied by the Americans a long time ago. The report says that these equipment could be support equipment for fighter aircraft operations.

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Islamabad uses Skardu, a forward operating base of Pakistani Air Force, to support its Army operation on the border with India. 

Pakistan has been opposing India's move to remove some provisions of Article 370. Pakistan, which illegaly occupied a part of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 when the state's ruler decided to join India after Independence, had vowed to exercise "all possible options" to counter India's "illegal" and "unilateral" step.

It has decided to move the United Nations Security Council against India's move to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and divide the state into two Union Territories. 

Continuing its pushback against India's decision, Pakistan had also shut down bi-weekly Samjhauta Express train service connecting Lahore and New Delhi and Thar Express that runs from Jodhpur to Lahore. India, however, downplayed Pakistani actions and asked it to accept the reality and stop interferring in New Delhi's internal matters.