Pakistan rejects Indian army chief’s statement

Pakistan rejects Indian army chief’s statement about India’s right to a pre-emptive strike which has been considered irresponsible.

The Indian army chief just hours after being appointed the 28th army chief made a statement about a pre-emptive strike to which the Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) issued a statement in which the spokesperson, Aisha Farooqui said:

There should be no doubt about Pakistan’s resolve and readiness to thwart against any aggressive Indian move, inside its territory or AJ&K. No one should forget Pakistan’s befitting response to India’s Balakot misadventure.

Despite India’s provocations, Pakistan will continue contributing to all efforts of promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond.

The new Indian Army Chief, Gen Naravane was appointed as the 28th Indian army chief on Tuesday and his statement came just hours after his appointment where he said that India “reserves the right to preemptively strike across the Line of Control (LOC)”.

In an interview with Press Trust of India, Gen Naravane said:

If Pakistan does not stop its policy of state-sponsored terrorism, we reserve the right to preemptively strike at the sources of terror threat and this intent has adequately been demonstrated in our response during surgical strikes and Balakot operation.

Just last month, the former army chief, Bipin Rawat, said that the situation along Line of Control could “escalate any time” and to that, Major Asif Ghafoor, Director General of Inter-services Public Relations responded saying that his statement was just an “effort, as usual, to divert world attention from widespread protests” over their new Citizenship Act.

Tensions between the two nations have been high because of the on-going Kashmir situation and there have also been many protest within India recently not just because of the Kashmir situation but also because of their new Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that apparently targets minorities.

Protests have resulted in Internet shutdowns across the country by the government.

The Foreign Office in their response to the army chief also said:

We deplore the continuing proclivity of Indian political as well as military leaders to fabricate facts with regard to terrorism or the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) as part of their attempts to mislead the world and with the possible intention of staging some false-flag operation.

They would be well-advised to look inwards and curb the growing ‘saffron terror’, which is increasingly a matter of concern for the international community.

The press release by the Foreign Office also said that Pakistan will continue give their support to the Kashmiri people who have been under lockdown since 150 days now without internet or phone services to even contact anyone.

The statement read:

India’s farcical claims of normalcy returning to the situation in IOJ&K carry no credibility whatsoever. We will continue to stress the importance of urgent and effective steps by the world community to address India’s state-terrorism against the Kashmiri people, who are demanding their legitimate right of self-determination as enshrined in the United National Security Council Resolutions,

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