General Raheel sends clear message to hawkish India

Modi, RAW should know that our borders are completely secure, says General Raheel Sharif

GILGIT: Army chief General Raheel Sharif has said be it Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi or its spy agency RAW, they must know that Pakistan's boundaries were completely safe.

"We have well understood the conspiracies [being hatched against Pakistan]," General Raheel said while addressing a seminar relating to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Gilgit on Thursday.

In his address on Indian Independence Day, Modi had said Pakistan would have to answer for its ‘human rights’ violation in Balochistan and the Pakistani side of Kashmir.

“We are aware of our enemies, know their tactics and to spoil their designs we would go beyond even the last limit,” Army chief said. Pakistan’s army was second to none and a battle hardened force, he added.



Observing that the Operation Zarb-e-Azb was heading in the right direction, the Army chief said the evil nexus of corruption and terrorism will be broken at all costs and at every level.

There was no one more hard-working than the people of Gilgit, the COAS said, adding he was absolutely certain that the nation was heading in the right direction.

He also reassured that “we will materialise CPEC” and Gilgit, which is the gateway to the $46 billion umbrella project, would be developed at par with the neighbouring Chinese cities.

Army chief also announced to set up a second Special Security Division, to be called South SSD that will provide security from Rawalpindi to Gwadar.

The first North SSD will ensure CPEC security from Khunjrab to Rawalpindi besides assisting the stakeholders, including province, in matters relating to CPEC, General Raheel added.

Earlier on Thursday, head of the military’s media wing Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa said Pakistan Army did not play any favourites during the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb, adding that Islamic State’s effort to establish foothold in the country had been thwarted.



Bajwa added that all stakeholders including Afghanistan were informed of Operation Zarb-e-Azb and they were required to take action terrorists, which did not happen.

The DG observed that the operation in North Waziristan’s Shawal, the last haven of terrorists, had managed to clear the valley’s villages, houses, schools and mosques.

Regarding MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s speech, the DG ISPR said no Pakistani could allow someone sitting in a foreign country to deliver anti-state talk.

The Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched on June 2014 to purge the country, especially the restive North Waziristan, of terrorist elements and destroy their last safe havens.