Indian army chief threatens Pakistan with 'painful retaliation'

India earlier called off a meeting scheduled between its foreign minister with the Pakistani counterpart

Indian army chief Bipin Rawat on Saturday threatened Pakistan with 'retaliation' over its alleged involvement in last week's killing of a border guard and policemen in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

The remarks come a day after New Delhi called off a meeting scheduled for next week between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India.

"We need to take stern action to avenge the barbarism that terrorists and Pakistan Army have been carrying out," India TV quoted Gen Rawat as saying.

"Yes, it's time to give it back to them in the same coin, not resorting to similar kind of barbarism. But I think the other side must also feel the same pain," he added.



"I think our govt's policy has been quite clear and concise," Gen Rawat said and went on to add, "We've made no bones about the fact that talks and terrorism can't go hand in hand. Pakistan needs to curb the menace of terrorism."

'World knows who wants war'

Reacting to the Indian army chief's rant, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan would continue to strive for peace, and added that the world is watching as to who wants peace and who wants war.

We reject war mongering by ruling elite of India everyone know Indian Govt strategy is to use hate mongering against Pak basically to bail Pm Modi from call for resignation post French jets Rafael deal and divert attention of Indian public from this mega corruption scandal .

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 22, 2018

Indian army chief, Fawad added, should not behave as BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] chief and must not become a "tool" to propagate such negative messages.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj were scheduled to meet in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session. But the meeting was cancelled by New Delhi on Friday.

The Indian foreign ministry said the talks were called off after the “latest brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities and the recent release of a series of twenty postage stamps by Pakistan glorifying a terrorist and terrorism”.

It did not provide further details about the alleged killings.