FO rebukes Indian FM for 'incendiary' swipe at Pak army

Says Islamabad believes in co-existence, dialogue; May conflict demonstrated military's professionalism

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan has categorically rejected and condemned "the highly inflammatory, baseless and irresponsible comments" recently made by Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar about the Pakistan Armed Forces.

In a press statement issued on Sunday, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan is a responsible state and its all institutions, including armed forces, are a pillar of national security, dedicated to safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country."

The FO spokesperson was responding to Jaishankar, who, while addressing a summit in New Delhi on December 6, said most of India's problems with Pakistan stemmed from its military establishment, which he claimed had cultivated and sustained an entrenched animosity toward India.

"When you look at terrorism, when you look at the training camps, when you look at the sort of a policy of almost ideological hostility towards India — where does that come from? It comes from the [Pakistan] army," the Indian minister was reported as saying.

His remarks came months after Pakistan and India engaged in a brief but intense military confrontation, during which the nuclear-armed neighbours exchanged artillery and missile fire and deployed drones and fighter jets.

The four-day confrontation started after India launched missile strikes inside Pakistan on May 7 in what it claimed as a retaliation to a militant attack on tourists in the Pahalgam area of the held Kashmir on April 22.

On May 10, Pakistan carried out a series of strikes on various military sites inside India. New Delhi on the same day agreed to a ceasefire after intervention of the United States. During the confrontation Pakistan downed seven Indian fighter jets including Rafale aircraft.

The FO spokesperson said the May conflict vividly demonstrated Pakistan Armed Forces' professionalism as well as their resolve to defend the motherland and the people of Pakistan against any Indian aggression in a befitting, effective yet responsible manner. No amount of propaganda can belie this truth.

Andrabi said the attempts by Indian leadership to defame Pakistan's state institutions and its leadership were a part of a propaganda campaign designed to distract the attention from India's destabilizing actions in the region and beyond as well as state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan.

"Such incendiary rhetoric only exemplifies the extent of India's disregard for amity, peace and stability in our region," the spokesperson added.

He said instead of making misleading remarks about the Pakistan Armed Forces, India must investigate the fascist and revisionist Hindutva ideology that had unleashed a reign of mob justice, lynchings, arbitrary detentions and demolition of properties and places of worship.

"Indian state and leadership both have become hostage of this terror in the name of religion. Pakistan believes in co-existence, dialogue and diplomacy. However, it stands united and resolute in its intent and ability to safeguard its interests and sovereignty," he added.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947. They have also engaged in countless border skirmishes and major military standoffs, including the 1999 Kargil conflict.

The four-day conflict in May 2025 ended with a US-brokered ceasefire, after Washington said both sides had expressed willingness to pursue dialogue.

Pakistan said it was ready to discuss all outstanding issues, but India declined talks and unilaterally suspended the Indus-Waters Treaty, a 1960 water-sharing agreement, brokered by the World Bank, allocating three eastern rivers to India and three western rivers to Pakistan.