Defence minister issues warning to New Delhi

Says Delhi trying to link freedom movement with cross-border terror

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday reiterated that Pakistan armed forces would respond with full force if India tried to carry out surgical strikes inside Pakistan.

Responding to questions raised by Senator Sehar Kamran on the simmering tensions between India and Pakistan and ceasefire violations of the Indian forces along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary (WB), the minister said, "If India dared to carry out surgical strikes inside Pakistan, a befitting response would be meted out”.





He said India had also claimed to carry out surgical strikes in recent past but this claim was baseless and false.

He said Kashmir's indigenous freedom struggle, India's internal political compulsion and avoiding composite dialogue were three major reasons behind Indian unprovoked firing along LoC and WB.

Asif said India was making failed attempts to link Kashmir's indigenous freedom movement with cross-border infiltration and terrorism. This Indian campaign had already failed at the diplomatic front, he added.

The minister said India had levelled such baseless allegations against Pakistan in 1988. However, he said Pakistan would continue political, diplomatic and moral support to Kashmiris in their just struggle for right to self-determination.

Asif said India was also afraid of Pakistan's success in the fight against terrorism.

“Pakistan's success had been recognised by the international community,” he said, adding that the armed forces have successfully rooted out terrorists and all their safe sanctuaries in North Waziristan.

Briefing the Senate, Asif said that India carried out 330 ceasefire violations—290 along the Line of Control and 40 on the Working Boundary.

The minister further said that 45 civilians were killed whereas 138 others were injured in these violations.

He said the frequency of the violations had reduced after December.

“The violations were effectively responded to by our armed forces,” he said, adding that the government reported the violations to United Nations Military Observer Group (UNMOG) and apprised the UN for investigations.



He said the ministry of foreign affairs also raised the issue at the diplomatic and bilateral levels.

Earlier, speaking on the motion, Kamran said since assuming office, Indian premier Narendra Modi adopted an aggressive policy against Pakistan.

Lt Gen (Retd) Abdul Qayyum said India wanted to divert the world’s attention from its internal situation.

The upper house strongly condemned Modi’s statements against Pakistan and unanimously adopted a resolution to send a strong message of national integrity to India.

Missing activists

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani said recent statements on the missing persons issued by the US State Department and the British government were ‘inappropriate’

"I understand the statements of the State Department and the British government about missing activists in Pakistan were extremely inappropriate," he observed in the house.

"It is our internal affair and we are facing and looking into it. These governments have no right to comment on our internal affairs," he added.

The chairman took exception to the double standards of these governments, saying both of these governments remained silent on gross human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir and Palestine.

"These countries remain silent to the missing activists (cases) in Indian Occupied Kashmir and extra-judicial killings of innocent persons in Kashmir and Palestine," he added.

Rabbani also said that the issue of missing activists was the country’s issue. “We shall deal with it and would not allow any external government to meddle into our affairs."

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2017.