ISLAMABAD, Oct 14 (Asia Free Press): Pakistan on Thursday condemned in strong words the irresponsible statement reportedly made by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah during an address at Goa, threatening Pakistan for “surgical strikes”.
While mentioning the Balakot incident, Shah has said, “There were a time talks happened, but now is the time to reciprocate.”
In a statement, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “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.”
Pakistan has expressed worry about India’s sinister designs of staging “false flag” operations and blaming Pakistan through smear campaigns.
The Foreign Ministry called it an attempt to divert the world’s attention from gross human rights violations perpetrated by Indian authorities in Indian occupied Kashmir and against other minorities, particularly the Muslims in India.
The statement further said, Pakistan, indeed, is a peace-loving country but has the will, capacity and preparedness to resolutely thwart any aggressive designs.
In 2016, India claimed to have conducted surgical strikes were conducted by the Indian army on “terror launch pads along the LoC”. Pakistan had then rubbished the Indian claims and called it “fabrication of truth”.
India tried to launch a similar operation in Feb 2019 against Pakistan but had failed and two of its planes were shot down by the Pakistan Air Force and one of its pilots was caught and later handed over to the Indian authorities.