RAWALPINDI: Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DGISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor on Thursday said that Pakistan was a peace-loving country, but if war was imposed on it then the country would respond befittingly.
Addressing a news briefing here at Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) premises, the DG ISPR said that Pakistan shared around over 2000 km border with India in the east, but unfortunately due to India’s hegemonic designs the border was unsafe.
Referring to escalating ceasefire and working boundary violations by India, he said threats from India were perpetual. During the current year, he said the Indian violations had been the highest in number, when compared to the previous years.
He said that India was targeting civilian population. “India’s ceasefire accord violations along the Line of Control (LoC) this year targeted a total of 222 civilians. Out of these 42 lost their lives, while the rest suffered injuries.
But, he added, “India too has paid a price for these violations as a result of our response. We’ll we continue to do that if it does not stop and acts with restraint.”
The casualties on the Indian side are to soldiers and infrastructure, he said. “But war is not the solution hence to stop this we are talking to them at all levels.”
Major General Asif Ghafoor said that there were threats at Pakistan’s borders adding that the important question was “whether they (threats) are because of state or non-state actors” and what the country’s response to those was.
“Geographically Pakistan is a very important country. When multiple interests collude, it is natural that conflicts arise.”
He said war had been continuing in Afghanistan for the past four decades, but after 9/11 that war entered Pakistan’s borders. “As a nation we’ve fought this war with bravery. Today there is no organized base of any terrorist organization in the country,” he said.
He said Afghan Army was working according to its capacity but more than 50 per cent of Afghan territory was still out of their control and stability in that country was still a challenge for the authorities.
He said Pakistan had deployed around 100,000 troops at its eastern border and around 200,000 at the western border. “We cannot bring back our army to the cantonments from the western borders because of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other such non-state actors,” he said.
