Pakistan Warns of Imminent Indian Military Action

COLOMBO (News 1st); Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar early on Wednesday (30) morning said that “credible intelligence” reports indicated that India was planning to conduct a military action against Pakistan in the “next 24 to 36 hours”, adding to tensions between the two countries in the wake of the Pahalgam attack.

According to Pakistan's Dawn News, India, without offering any evidence, has implied cross-border linkages of the attackers, while Pakistan’s political and military leadership have strongly denied any involvement. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for a neutral probe into the incident.

The tensions between the arch-rivals have intensified in the past few days, with Defence Minister Khawaja Asif saying Pakistan had reinforced its forces and was ready for any incursion by India, while on the other side, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given his military “operational freedom” to act on the Pahalgam attack.

In a televised statement issued hours after Modi’s move, Tarar said: “Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to carry out military action against Pakistan in the next 24-36 hours on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident.”

He said Pakistan vehemently rejected “Indian self-assumed hubristic role of judge, jury and executioner in the region” and it was completely “reckless”.

“Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism itself and truly understands the pain of this scourge,” the minister said, adding: “We have always condemned it in all its forms and manifestations anywhere in the world.”

Being a responsible state, Tarar noted, Pakistan “openheartedly offered a credible, transparent and independent investigation” by a neutral commission of experts to ascertain the truth.

“Unfortunately, rather than pursuing the path of reason, India has apparently decided to tread the dangerous path of irrationality and confrontation, which will have catastrophic consequences for the complete region and beyond,” he stressed.

The information minister said the “evasion of credible investigations is in itself sufficient evidence exposing India’s real motives”.

“Consciously making strategic decisions hostage to public sentiments, purposefully trumped up for securing political objectives, is unfortunate and deplorable,” he added.

Tarar reiterated that any such military adventurism by India would be responded to assuredly and decisively.

“The international community must remain alive to the reality that the onus of [an] escalatory spiral and its ensuing consequences shall squarely lie with India.”

He reiterated the nation’s resolve to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan at all costs.

Source: Dawn News