Pak armed forces to fully respond in case of any surgical strikes: Asif

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ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif Monday reiterated that Pakistan armed forces would respond with full force if India tried to carry out any surgical strikes inside Pakistan.

Winding up a debate on a motion moved by Sehar Kamran regarding the situation arising out of the continuing Indian violations of the Line of Control (LoC) and ceasefire on the Working Boundary (WB).

The minister said, if India dared to carry out surgical strike inside Pakistan; after befitting response she will forget even claiming any fake and false strikes.

He said that India had also claimed to carry out surgical strikes in recent past but this claims was found baseless and false.

He said Kashmir indigenous freedom struggle, India internal political compulsion and avoiding composite dialogue were three major reasons by Indian unprovoked firing along LoC and WB.

Asif said the India was making failed attempts to link Kashmir’s indigenous freedom movement with cross border infiltration and terrorism. India’s this campaign had already been failed at the diplomatic fronts, he added.

He said India had leveled such baseless allegation against Pakistan in 1988.

However, the minister said that Pakistan would continue political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiris in their just struggle for right to self-determination.

Asif said India was also afraid of Pakistan’s success in fight against terrorism. He said Pakistan’s success had been recognized by the international community.

The Minister said “our armed forces have successfully rooted out terrorists and their all safe sanctuaries in North Waziristan which was a great achievement”.

He said that India carried out 330 ceasefire violations including 290 and 40 violations along LoC and WB respectively till December.

The minister said 45 civilians were martyred and 138 injured in these violations.

He said the frequency of the violations has been reduced after December.

However, he said the violations were effectively responded by our armed forces.

These violations were also reported to United Nations Military Observer Group and appraised the UN for investigations.

He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also raised the issue at the diplomatic and bilateral levels.

Earlier, speaking on the motion, Sehar Kamran said since assuming the office, India premier Modi adopted an aggressive policy against Pakistan.

She said India did not want peace in the region and always trying to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in the region.

She said the UN observers should take serious notice of Indian unprovoked firing on innocent people.

Gen (r) Abdul Qayyum said that India wanted to divert attention of its people from internal situation of the country. India losses were more than our, he added.

Tahir Hussain Mashhadi said it was a matter of Hindu fundamentalism and India wants to be an American police of Asia.

He said time has come to expose Indian real face before the international community. India was also involved in such violations with other neighbouring countries including Nepal and Bangladesh, he added.

He said killing of the innocent people was leading towards instability in the region.

Mohsin Aziz said that the evil designs of Indian government should be highlighted at all the international fora.