ISLAMABAD - ‘Give peace a chance’ was the reply of Prime Minister Imran Khan while responding to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s comments about him and once again reiterated his stance on Pulwama attack asking India to provide actionable intelligence for swift action on part of Islamabad.
Indian Prime Minister Modi while addressing a gathering in Rajasthan on Saturday last had said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had told him that he would stand by his words. ”Today, it is the time to test if he will stand by his words,” he said referring to the recent attack in Pulwama.
“When Pakistan got a new prime minister, I congratulated him [Imran Khan]. I had told him that we together should fight against poverty and illiteracy. Imran Khan had said to me that he was the son of a Pathan and will stand by his words,” the Indian PM said. “Today, it is time to test if he will stand by his words,” PM Modi said in view of the Pulwama attack.In response to Modi’s comments Premier Khan said, “I stand by my words that if India gives us actionable intelligence, we will immediately act.” Imran recalling his meeting with Indian Premier in December 2015 said that both of them had agreed that poverty alleviation is a priority for the region. “We would not allow any terrorist incident to derail peace efforts, however, long before Pulwama, these efforts were derailed in September 2018. Sadly, now peace remains elusive due to elections in India,” he added. He hoped that Indian Premier Modi should give peace a chance.
Imran in his official reaction to the Indian attempts to implicate Pakistan in Pulwama attack and taking hostile posture and creating war hysteria back home asked India to come up with some actionable intelligence proving involvement of any Pakistani in the attack and offered all out support in probing the incident.
But at the same time Premier Khan has cautioned India that any misadventure on part of New Delhi would invite a befitting response and the restraint and sanity shown by Islamabad should not be taken as its Qness.
In the followup of his response against the unreasonable and illogical position taken by the Indian government, the civil and military leadership of the country also came up with dialogue offer to India. Even Premier Khan had expressed his readiness to talk on terrorism including rest of the contentious issues between the two nuclear neighbours.
Premier Khan had also warned India not to create war hysteria for the upcoming Indian elections as triggering of a war between the two nuclear neighbours could have disastrous implication as according to him (PM Khan) one could start the war but how it would shape up would not be in the control of anyone.
In the followup developments Islamabad with a proactive diplomacy was sending messages to the world rights bodies as well as world capitals telling them about the declared position of Pakistan on Pulwama terror attack and the dialogue offer and cooperation Pakistan was offering to neighbouring India in the investigation of the attack.
Give peace a chance: Imran