Pakistani Military Jet Crashes, Two Pilots Killed

A Pakistani jet crashed during training on January 7 in the eastern Punjab Province, killing the two pilots, the military said.

The FT-7 jet trainer went down in an open area and caused no damage on the ground, the air force said in a statement.

It said a probe had been opened to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred close to the district of Mianwali, 300 kilometers from Lahore.

Pakistani authorities rarely release details of military training crashes, which are relatively common.

In October, a trainer aircraft crash-landed in a field near Wazirabad in Gujranwala district. Both pilots aboard the plane survived.

In July, 19 people died when a Pakistani military aircraft crashed into a residential area on the outskirts of the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Pakistan's air force has been on high alert since February, when Indian jets struck targets inside Pakistan.

The strikes targeted Pakistan-based militants responsible for a suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian troops in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir.

At the time, Pakistan retaliated and shot down two Indian Air Force planes. One Indian pilot was captured and later released. But tensions have continued to remain high between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over the Kashmir region, claimed by both sides since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

With reporting by AP and dawn.com