New Delhi. The Indian Cabinet met in emergency session last night and the Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi, conferred with Service chiefs following the shooting of three Pakistani Sabre jet fighters which crossed into Indian airspace on Monday and the declaration yesterday of a state of national emergency in Pakistan. Mrs. Gandhi will meet Opposition leaders early today about the worsening situation. The shooting down of the aircraft marks a serious and possibly critical degree of escalation in the Indo-Pakistan crisis.

The announcement by Mr. V. C. Shukla, Minister of Defence Production, in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) that three of the four Sabres which crossed the frontier at Boyra, 30 miles north-east of Calcutta, were intercepted and brought down was greeted by loud cheers. He said the jets flew nearly three miles across the frontier. Four Gnat interceptors were sent after them and shot at them as they made a sharp turn back towards Pakistan.

‘NO UNDECLARED WAR’

Two of the Pakistani pilots who baled out landed in India and were now in custody, the Minister sated. He gave their names as Flight Lt. Parvez Mahdi and Flying Officer Khalil Ahmed. There were no Indian losses. Mr. Shukla denied that India had now stepped up the situation along its frontier with East Pakistan to a state of an all-out offensive without actually declaring war. There was no “undeclared war”, he stated, and hostilities had not broken out. To say so would be to fall prey to Pakistan’s propaganda bid to “internationalise” its conflict with Bangladesh and bring in the United Nations.

Defence observers were puzzled last night by the Indian account of the incident. One oddity was that although the Pakistan jets had crossed only three miles into Indian territory there had been time for them to intercept and shot down by Gnats, which are much slower, before recrossing.

RECONNAISSANCE THEORY

One theory may be that the Sabres were flying at a low level where Gnats are most effective. They were probably being used for reconnaissance in an area where Mukti Bahini guerrillas of Bangladesh are making a powerful thrust towards the key town of Jessore. Until now India has refrained from shooting down the many reconnaissance planes which have strayed over the frontier. There was no official reaction last night to the declaration of emergency in Pakistan, but the armed forces were placed on full alert.

Some observers feel that the reason for the emergency is unlikely to be loss of the three Sabre jets so much as the deteriorating position in East Pakistan, where the anti-Government guerrillas are making increasing headway. Bangladesh sources said yesterday that guerrillas were poised to capture Sylhet in the north-east of the Province. The state of emergency may also be yet another device enabling President Yahya Khan to defer his proposed hand over of power to the civilian Government.

A series of by-elections in East Pakistan to fill seats deemed vacant because they were won by banned members of the outlawed Awami League party is proving a fiasco, and is acknowledged as such even in Pakistan. A state of emergency could enable President Yahya to go back on his undertaking to hand over power by the end of the year.