India's Ministry of Defense expressed in a statement on Friday "deep regret" after a technical malfunction led to the "accidental" launch of a missile and its landing in Pakistan, confirming that an investigation had been opened.
While Pakistan warned India of "serious consequences" due to an "unidentified supersonic flying object" crashing on its soil.
"As part of routine maintenance, a technical malfunction resulted in the missile being launched by mistake" on Wednesday and its landing in an "area of Pakistan," the Indian statement said.
In its statement, the Indian Ministry expressed its "deep regret" over what happened, confirming that a high-level investigation had been opened.
On the other hand, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had summoned the Indian Chargé d'Affairs in Islamabad today to protest what it said was an unjustified violation of its airspace.
Pakistan demanded an investigation into the incident, which it said could have endangered flights and civilians.
Islamabad warned New Delhi in the statement, saying, "It should be aware of the dire consequences of such negligence and take effective measures to avoid the recurrence of such violations in the future."
At a press conference held late yesterday evening, Pakistani army spokesman Babar Iftikhar said, "On the 9th of March, the Air Defense Operations Center of the Air Force detected an object flying at high speed inside Indian territory."
He added that the army was not sure of the nature of this object, which said that it crashed near the eastern city of Mian Chanu, while it was coming from Sirsa city in the western Indian province of Haryana.
"The trajectory of this flying object has endangered numerous domestic and international flights in both Indian and Pakistani airspace, as well as endangered human life and property," the spokesman said.
An official from the Pakistan Air Force also stated that the object was undergoing forensic analysis, and that preliminary results indicated that it was a supersonic surface-to-surface missile, but it was not equipped with weapons.
He added - in the press conference - that the object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet, and traveled 124 kilometers inside Pakistani airspace before crashing.