We're ready to respond to threat from eastern border: COAS

Gen Qamar Bajwa visits formation headquarters in Gligit: ISPR

COAS General Qamar Bajwa visited on Saturday Pakistan Army's formation headquarters in Gilgit where he said that the military was fully aware and prepared to thwart any misadventure or aggression from India.

"We are alive to threat from eastern border linked to ongoing situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), quoted him as saying.

The COAS appreciated the troops' state of readiness and moral despite challenges of weather, terrain and the enemy at the highest battlefield of the world.

The statement comes in the wake of rising tensions between Pakistan and India with New Delhi deciding to strip IOK of its special status and enforcing an information blockade in the Himalayan valley.

By repealing Article 370 of the constitution, outsiders will now have the right to acquire property in Kashmir and settle there permanently.

Kashmiris, as well as critics, see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of the Muslim-majority region with Hindu settlers.

An indefinite curfew — that has entered its 20th day today — remains in place in IOK, and political leaders are under detention.