File Photo: Image used for representation

JAMMU: Amid the escalating Indo-Pak tension , the Indian Army on Thursday postponed its five-day recruitment drive in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Army's recruitment drive was scheduled to be held in Samba from Friday.

"The recruitment rally of 157 infantry battalion (Territorial Army - Home and Hearth), which was scheduled from March 1 to March 5 at Bari Brahmana military garrison has been postponed," a defence spokesperson said.

He said fresh dates would be announced later.

The decision to defer the recruitment drive came two days after Indian fighter jets, in a pre-dawn, preemptive, non-military operation on Tuesday pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror facility at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan in reply to the outfit's February 14 terror strike in Pulwama in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

In reply to the IAF's strikes, Pakistani fighter jets on Wednesday intruded into Indian airspace to target military installations, but their bid was foiled by IAF jets, which shot down a PAF plane.

In the aerial skirmishes, however, India too lost one of its jets and its pilot, who bailed out of the damaged plane and landed in Pakistan, was held in captivity by Pakistan Army's five-day recruitment drive in Samba postponed.

