ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rejected new Indian army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane’s irresponsible statement about ‘pre-emptive strikes’.
Rebutting the Indian army chief’s statement, Foreign Office said Pakistan was fully able to respond to any Indian aggression in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and that New Delhi should not forget Islamabad’s befitting response to its aggression in Balakot last year.
FO spokesperson Ayesha Farooqi said Pakistan would continue its efforts for peace and stability in the region despite India’s provocations. The Kashmiri people’s demand for their right of self-determination were justified and in line with the United Nation’s resolutions, she added.
India, the spokesperson noted, should permit international observers to visit occupied Kashmir.
A day earlier and shortly after taking charge as India’s new chief of the army staff (COAS), Gen Naravane had said in an interview to the Press Trust of India (PTI) that New Delhi “reserve[d] the right to preemptively strike at sources of terror” and had “multiple options … to respond to any act of terror sponsored or abetted by Pakistan”.
He had said India had “evolved a strategy of resolute punitive response against sponsored terrorism”.
Gen Naravane’s comments were similar to those made by his predecessor, Gen Bipin Rawat, who, on Tuesday, was appointed India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). Gen Rawat had maligned Pakistan in October last year.
The Pakistani leadership believes India might engage in a military misadventure to divert attention away from its anti Muslim policies and it’s well recorded atrocities in Indian occupied Kashmir.
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