Pakistan's navy buries 16 dead amid rising tensions

Prospects of peace talks between India and Pakistan faded yesterday after both sides adopted belligerent postures over the shooting down of a Pakistani navy surveillance aircraft by an Indian fighter jet earlier this week.

The Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, said India's shooting down of its aircraft would complicate peace talks between the two states.

"It was a barbaric act and I think it was also a very cowardly act," Mr Sharif said at a naval base in Karachi, after offering prayers at the funeral ceremony for the 16 officers and sailors killed on Tuesday.

The Indian Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, reaffirmed Delhi's resolve to defend its territorial integrity at all costs. He said India would not submit to nuclear blackmail by Pakistan and that it would act decisively to defend its borders.

The United States, Britain, France and the United Nations have expressed concern and urged India and Pakistan to resume stalled peace talks to defuse tension in the region. The situation became a flashpoint last year after the two arch-rivals tested nuclear weapons and began building missiles capable of striking deep into each other's territory.

Meanwhile, Mr Sharif disputed Delhi's claims that the Pakistani plane was shot down in Indian territory after it adopted an aggressive posture. He said the incident was a "grave violation" of international norms and would work against moves to normalise bilateral relations.

The Pakistani Prime Minister said the French Atlantique 1 surveillance aircraft was unarmed, on a training mission and posed no threat to India. Mr Sharif also accused India of "stealing" the aircraft debris from Pakistani territory to display it and of telling "false stories" to justify its aggression.

The incident took place on India's western border, along the Arabian Sea, a month after the two countries came close to fighting their fourth war when Pakistani soldiers and Islamic mercenaries captured strategic hilly areas in northern, disputed Kashmir state on the Indian side. They were evicted after 11 weeks of bitter fighting in which some 1,200 people died. The situation deteriorated on Wednesday when Pakistan fired at least one missile at three Indian helicopters carrying journalists to the site of the downed Pakistani surveillance aircraft in the Rann of Kutch region.

An Indian government spokesman yesterday said Pakistan's "provocation" was not conducive to normalising relations. He said the aircraft had violated an eightyear-old agreement between the two countries that forbids combat aircraft from coming within 10 km of the border without prior information.

The Pakistani plane, he said, was shot down after it had strayed at least 20 km inside Indian territory and adopted an "aggressive posture" when challenged by fighter jets.

Indian defence experts said the Pakistani aircraft was on an intelligence mission. "It was probing India's air defences and trying to identify gaps and weaknesses," said former air Commodore Jasjit Singh, director of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in Delhi.

He said the aircraft was also assessing India's readiness as well as constructing an inventory of Indian radar and communication signatures for future use to "scout out" invasion routes through the creeks in the area.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani servicemen's coffins, wrapped in their national flags and covered with wreaths from the prime minister and the military chiefs, were later flown to their home towns to be buried with military honours.