Prime Minister Imran Khan. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
Prime Minister Imran Khan warned the international community on Saturday that if India staged a false flag operation, then it would receive a “befitting response” from Pakistan.
I have been warning the int community of this for some time & am reiterating again: if India does such an operation to divert attention from its domestic chaos plus whip up war hysteria to mobilise Hindu nationalism, Pak will have no option but to give a befitting response.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 21, 2019
In a series of tweets, Premier Imran said that during the past five years, Modi’s government had been taking India towards Hindu Rashtra with its Hindutva supremacist and fascist ideology. He added that India could resort to a false flag operation to divert attention from domestic chaos and whip up war hysteria to mobilise Hindu nationalism.
“Now, with the Citizens Amendment Act, all those Indians who want a pluralist India are beginning to protest and it is becoming a mass movement,” he said. “At the same time the siege by Indian occupation forces in IOJ&K continues and a bloodbath can be expected when it is lifted,” he added.
Over the last 5 years of Modi's govt, India has been moving towards Hindu Rashtra with its Hindutva Supremacist fascist ideology. Now with the Citizens Amendment Act, all those Indians who want a pluralist India are beginning to protest & it is becoming a mass movement.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 21, 2019
The Modi government stripped Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) of its constitutional semi-autonomous status on Aug 5 and clamped a draconian curfew which remains in place ever since with millions of Kashmiris literally cut off from the rest of the world.
“As these protests are increasing, threat to Pakistan from India is also increasing. Indian army chief’s statement adds to our concerns of a false flag operation,” Imran added. “I have been warning the international community of this for some time and I am reiterating again.”
Indian army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said in a statement on Wednesday that the situation along Line of Control (LoC) could escalate anytime and the Indian army was maintaining high level of readiness to cater to different contingencies.
A day later, the Pakistani military spokesperson, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, dismissed Gen Bipin’s statement as “an effort to divert the world’s attention from violent protests against India’s anti-Muslim law”.
Indian COAS attempting to divert attention from citizenship law protests: DG ISPR
According to an official tally, nearly two dozen people have been killed in the Modi-controlled state of Uttar Pradesh as mass agitation against the controversial shows no signs of relenting.
“If India does such an operation to divert attention from its domestic chaos plus whip up war hysteria to mobilise Hindu nationalism, Pakistan will have no option but to give a befitting response,” the prime minister cautioned the global community.
Imran’s tweets came two days after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi sent a letter to the UN Security Council president to convene a session at the earliest to discuss the recent Indian actions along the Line of Control (LoC).
He warned that the Indian moves could be part of its preparation for a ‘false flag’ operation against Pakistan to divert attention from the current protests against its notorious citizenship law.
“In view of the Indian actions, on Dec 12, 2019, I wrote another letter to the Security Council president. This was my seventh letter in which I have identified the actions that reflect India’s malicious intentions,” he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Thursday.
Qureshi’s letter drew the UNSC’s attention towards four specific developments and actions taken recently by India. “Since Jan 2019, nearly 3,000 ceasefire violations have taken place on the LoC. Nearly 300 innocent civilians, including women and children, have been targeted,” it said.
Pakistan requests UNSC session amid Indian threats
The LoC fence had been cut off at five different places which had been identified, the letter added. “What are the motives behind it? Is there going to be a new misadventure? We are also concerned about this,” Qureshi asked.
The foreign minister also wrote that India was making new deployments. “Deployment of Brahmos missiles in Indian Occupied Kashmir needs attention. Spike in anti-tank missiles deployment in IOK is of concern to us,” Qureshi said.
He also referred to the statement made by the Indian army chief in which he said tensions could escalate along the LoC. “Our intelligence has picked signals and noticed extraordinary movements, which indicate malicious Indian designs,” Qureshi added.
Based on the letter, for the second time China raised the issue at the UN Security Council. Earlier this week, China had postponed a discussion by the Security Council about the situation in IOK because the UN mission there was not ready to provide a briefing.
The council last met behind closed-doors in Aug on the IOK situation, a gathering that was also requested by China, after India removed the decades-old autonomy the disputed region enjoyed under the Indian constitution.
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