ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: Pakistan on Saturday said it was ascertaining details about reported plans of Indian Air Force conducting joint exercises with its US and British counterparts in occupied Kashmir.

According to a report, datelined New Delhi, that was published in a section of the Press on Saturday Indian Air Chief Marshall S. P. Tyagi was quoted as saying on Friday: “The US Air Force will come for joint exercises in IHK in November this year while the British Royal Air Force will be coming next year.”

He made these remarks during his visit to IHK.

When the government’s reaction was sought on this report on Saturday, Foreign Office Spokesman Naeem Khan said: “We have seen the report. We are verifying the veracity of this report and we will then respond accordingly.”

He hinted that a clear picture would emerge by Monday.

Later, when military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan was contacted he said there was “nothing sensational” about it, adding that joint military exercises were a routine matter. However, when his attention was drawn to the fact that these exercises were planned in the disputed territory he said: “Yes, given that they will be held in IHK we certainly need to be aware of certain details like at which bases these exercises would be conducted and the number of forces etc. involved.”

He clearly indicated that the process of ascertaining these details had been initiated by the government, saying: “We are on it.” His clear message was that comments on the reported joint exercises would be offered only once the necessary details had been ascertained.

Notably last year at the first round of Indo-Pakistan talks on conventional confidence building measures (CBMs) one of the proposals put on the table by Pakistan was: no joint military exercises with any foreign or third country in disputed areas. Pakistan had also proposed prior notification of military exercises.

The news about these joint exercises coincides with the Indo-Pakistan talks on nuclear and conventional CBMs in New Delhi. Pakistan delegation will raise this issue during the one-day conventional CBMs talks on Monday, informed sources said.

It is learnt that Pakistan has already signalled to the relevant diplomatic missions to take up this matter with the host governments and convey to them Pakistan’s position in this regard.

Pakistan’s overriding concern is that in such an endeavour no red lines should be crossed.

In December 2004 when Indian army chief made an offer to the Chinese defence minister for ‘joint military exercise in non-traditional security’ top government officials had echoed this sentiment.