ISLAMABAD, March 30, (Reuter): Pakistani fighters today shot down an Afghan military reconnaissance plane which intruded some 16 km (10 miles) across the border, an eyewitness said. Major Shah Nawaz of the KurTam militia told Reuters by telephone the plane was hit by a missile and crashed into a mountain range close to the frontier.“I saw it with my own eyes, and I heard the bang as it crashed into the mountains”, he said from parachinar, in the Kurram salient which juts into Afghanistan.
The incident took place near Teri Mangal where Pakistan says Afghan warplanes killed 89 people and injured more than 100 in two bombing raids last Monday. The Soviet backed Afghan government has denied it.
No comment was immediately available from Kabul on Today’s Report. The two countries have been at loggerheads since the 1978 communist takeover in Afghanistan and both regularly reported incidents along the border.
The Pakistani Defense Ministry announced that an Afghan plane had been shot down, only the second “kill” claimed by the air force. But gave no detail.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1987
