ISLAMABAD - The top Pakistan military brass on Tuesday termed the repeated provocative statements of Indian military leadership regarding aggression against Pakistan as an irresponsible rhetoric with implications on regional peace and stability.
According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) directorate, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa presided over the 228th Corps Commanders Conference at the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
“The commanders meeting termed the Indian military leadership’s provocative statements as an irresponsible rhetoric with implications on regional peace and stability,” the ISPR statement explained.
The forum, however, vowed to continue playing a responsible and positive role towards peace and stability in the region.
“Pakistan is one of the lead participations with significant contributions towards peace and stability efforts in the region. We shall continue to play our responsible and positive role towards this end without compromising national security and defence of the motherland at whatever cost”, the ISPR quoted the COAS as having said on the occasion.
The meeting also reviewed the geostrategic, regional and national security environment and discussed internal security, situation along borders, Line of Control (LoC) and Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The forum also reviewed the evolving security situation in the Middle East with reference to the US-Iran standoff and its implications on regional peace and stability,” according to the ISPR directorate statement.
Indian Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Mukund Naravane earlier this month had threatened to carry out “preemptive strikes” in Pakistan. Last week, he again had said that the Indian army would take steps to take control of AJK if the Indian government gave such an order. His statement was then dismissed by the Pakistan Army’s media wing as “routine rhetoric for domestic audiences to get out of ongoing internal turmoil.” It said Pakistan Armed Forces were fully prepared to respond to any act of Indian aggression, a tweet by the ISPR director general said.
Tensions between Pakistan and India spiked sharply after Delhi got direct control of occupied Kashmir on August 5 last year by revoking the region’s special constitutional status.
The ongoing widespread protests in India against the controversial citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens have renewed fears of Indian aggression against Pakistan.
Gen Naravane, who was appointed as India’s 28th army chief last month, had further fanned the tensions in his first media interview soon after assuming the command by saying that if Pakistan did not stop its policy of alleged state-sponsored terrorism, they reserved the right to pre-emptively strike at the sources of terror threat.