ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army on Friday shot down an Indian quad-copter spying across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Rakhchikri Sector.
According to a tweet of Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor, the wreckage of the Indian spying quad-copter had been held.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has fervently opposed plans by the Trump administration to supply unarmed surveillance drones to India, saying extra-regional powers should be mindful of such actions which can “undermine strategic stability in South Asia”.
“Even if such transfers are below the prescribed thresholds, they definitely violate the spirit of the control regimes, which are aimed at controlling the proliferation of destabilising weapon systems, which can threaten regional peace and stability," spokesman at the Foreign Office told the weekly media briefing.
Islamabad is also apprehensive of any transfer of armed drones to India, saying this should also be closely examined in the context of the guidelines of the multilateral export control regimes, including the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which places certain limitations on such transfers.
“We hope that the members of MTCR and other export control regimes fully understand their responsibility in not letting any country’s membership of such groupings constitute a carte blanche for proliferation of destabilising weapon systems," he pointed out.
Indian Army chiefs have openly threatened Pakistan with “limited military operations”, leading the spokesman to warn that, “Use of armed drones can lower the threshold for conflict, since it can encourage military misadventures, especially in the backdrop of irresponsible discourse about limited military operations below the strategic threshold”. The US and India do not have a formal defence alliance, but New Delhi seeks to upgrade its equipment which in the past was provided by Russia.
Previously, the US had contemplated providing Pakistan with a dozen unarmed drone aircraft that would help bolster its military against the Taliban militants. As US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson admitted this week Pakistan has “two troubled borders”, so acquisition of these US drones by its eastern neighbour will certainly not help create stability.
Pakistan has for decades now been hit by the US drones, which have taken out hundreds inside its territory while there is no accounting for the “collateral damage” that armed US drones have caused on its western borders.
As the US pushes India to play a bigger role in the region especially inside Afghanistan, the spokesman commented, “Pakistan has consistently maintained that preserving regional stability should be the fundamental consideration in any international arms transfer”.
Meanwhile, the European Union, which has convenientlylooked away from atrocities inside Indian Held Kashmir (IHC), now plans to reward India by restarting negotiations on the 2009 civil nuclear agreement. The members of the EU, proclaiming strong commitment to non-proliferation norms, have an obligation to “carefully examine the implications of nuclear cooperation without appropriate safeguards.”
Pakistan insists that any agreement, which does not address these issues, would be detrimental to the objectives of non-proliferation and strategic stability in South Asia and would also undermine the credibility of the multilateral global non-proliferation regimes.
“Access to nuclear technology for peaceful uses is the right of every state. However, this right has to be exercised under appropriate safeguards in accordance with the established non-proliferation standards. Any deviation from established international standards will undermine the objective of non-proliferation by opening up possibilities for diversion of technology intended for peaceful uses to military purposes,” the spokesman responded to a query.
He added that IAEA safeguards should be permanent without any provision for their temporary application or the use of safeguarded nuclear materials in unsafeguarded facilities. “The international community should also insist on a stronger commitment on nuclear non-testing”, he said.
To another query, the spokesman said that Pakistan raised the issue of Indian involvement in terrorism in Pakistan from inside Afghanistan, during the recent meeting with the US Secretary of State.
“We also raised the issue of ceasefire violations by the Indian forces along the Line of Control and Working Boundary and that it endangers peace in the region and beyond. We also highlighted the plight of Kashmiris in Indian Held Kashmir,” he said.
For Pakistan, there is a concern also about the presence of large swathes of ungoverned spaces inside Afghanistan. These ungoverned spaces attract terrorists from all over the world. Terrorist groups including TTA, TTP, JuA, ETIM and Deash, etc, have established sanctuaries in Afghanistan. The head of TTP, Mullah Fazlullah, is in Afghanistan.
“The recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan have been traced back to the hideouts of JuA in Afghanistan and Indian involvement. We, on numerous occasions, have raised this issue with Afghan authorities to take action against these terrorist groups as well as address the issue of use of their soil by Indian agencies against Pakistan," said the spokesman.
