ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Thursday strongly condemned an irresponsible and provocative statement reportedly made by Indian Home Minister threatening so-called ‘surgical strikes’ in Pakistan.
This was probably the harshest statement from India in recent times after an agreement on ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC) which is holding for nearly a year.
“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”, said the Foreign Office in a statement.
The Indian media had earlier quoted Home Minister Amit Shah as saying that India will carry out surgical strikes against Pakistan "if it transgresses", adding that the time for talks was over and it was now time to "reciprocate".
The minister said there used to be talks when India's border came under attack, but now Delhi gives a befitting reply to terrorist attacks.
The Foreign Office pointed out that such statements also serve as smokescreens to divert world attention from India’s state-terrorism and systematic human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), and against Muslims and other minorities in India.
“Pakistan has repeatedly drawn attention of the international community to India’s sinister designs of staging “false flag” operations to implicate Pakistan and Kashmiris. While Pakistan is a peace-loving country, we will spare no effort in resolutely thwarting any aggressive designs”, added the Foreign Office.
It recalled 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.
Meanwhile, in a statement the OIC-IPHRC strongly condemned systematic violence, mob attacks and hate crimes against Muslims in India.
It said verification drive, discriminatory laws and call for boycott of Muslim businesses was stoking religious divide, dehumanising Muslims, encouraging Hindu vigilantism and raising genocide alerts.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan had also strongly condemned extrajudicial killings of five innocent Kashmiris in the IIOJ&K.
“The Hindutva-inspired BJP-RSS combine is carrying on its campaign of brutal repression and collective punishment of Kashmiris in IIOJ&K.
Simultaneously, a false propaganda war against Kashmiris and Pakistan continues unabated”, the Foreign Office said.
