Pakistan rubbishes India’s ‘surgical strike’ threat

Foreign Office reminds Delhi of its Balakot misadventure in 2019

ISLAMABAD:

The Foreign Office rubbished on Thursday a “delusional” statement by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, threatening “surgical strikes” in Pakistan, terming it part of India’s sinister designs of staging false flag operations to implicate Pakistan and the Kashmiris.

The Foreign Office said in a statement that Shah’s remarks demonstrated the BJP-RSS combine’s propensity to stoke regional tensions for both ideological reasons and political expediency, based on enmity towards Pakistan.

Shah in an address in the Indian state of Goa, said on Thursday that more strikes would be invited by Pakistan should it choose to “transgress”. He apparently threatened Islamabad when he said that there was a time talks happened but now was the time to reciprocate.

“Pakistan condemns in strongest terms the irresponsible and provocative statement reportedly made by Indian Home Minister today threatening so-called ‘surgical strikes’ in Pakistan,” the Foreign Office said in the statement.

“This delusional statement only goes to further demonstrate the BJP-RSS combine’s propensity to stoke regional tensions for both ideological reasons and political expediency, based on enmity towards Pakistan,” it added.

The statement further said that such statements served as smokescreens to divert the world attention from India’s state-terrorism and systematic human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and against Muslims and other minorities in India.

“Pakistan had repeatedly drawn the international community’s attention of the international community to India’s sinister designs of staging false flag operations to implicate Pakistan and the Kashmiris,” the statement added.

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Reminding India of Pakistan’s swift response to its misadventure in Balakot in 2019, the Foreign Office stressed that while Pakistan was a peace-loving country, “we will spare no effort in resolutely thwarting any aggressive designs”.

“Pakistan’s swift response to India’s Balakot misadventure in 2019, including the downing of Indian combat aircraft and capture of Indian Air Force pilot, fully demonstrated the will, capacity and preparedness of our armed forces to deter Indian aggression,” the statement concluded.

The recent spate of India’s state-sponsored terrorist activities in IIOJK are seen by the security analysts as a precursor for major state-sponsored terrorist activity. The analysts pointed to recent incidents which clearly indicated an attempt to create an environment for false flag operations against Pakistan.

The recent killing of five Indian soldiers, four of whom were Sikhs, in the Rajouri sector of IIOJK, is being seen as an attempt to divert Sikh farmers’ attention away from the recent killing of the Sikhs in Lakhimpur, towards anti-Pakistan sentiments.

The Indian media claimed the arrest of, what they called, “Pakistani terrorist” by their agencies in Delhi on October 11. The Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) chief said in tweet that “false flag ops & propaganda are classic fascist tactics to repel domestic instability by escalating crisis on the borders”.

On October 9, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) had called for holding the perpetrators as well as Indian forces accused of abuses including harassment, torture and extrajudicial killings accountable for their actions in the IIOJK.

“Kashmiris are caught in unending violence from attacks …  and abuses by government authorities and security forces,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said in a statement.

(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)