“Don’t mess with Pakistan,”: Army spokesman
RAWALPINDI REUTERS FEB 22-Pakistan will respond to any attack by India with “full force”, the army said on Friday amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, as Islamabad said it took over the base of a militant group that claimed a deadly bombing in Kashmir.
Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor was speaking a week after a Pakistani-based militant group Jaish-e-mohammed claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary policemen in the Himalayan region disputed between India and Pakistan. Pakistan late on Friday announced a takeover of Jaish’s headquarters in a southern Punjab province district bordering India.
Jaish, an Islamist jihadi group that fights for the independence of the disputed Kashmir region from India, has offices and infrastructure in Pakistan where its chief Maulana Masood Azhar is based.
Authorities took over Jaish’s headquarters in Bahawalpur and appointed an administrator to look after its affairs, a government statement said. It said the headquarters and an attached seminary has 600 students and
70 teachers.
India’s top military commander in the region has alleged Pakistan’s main Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency was involved in the attack.
“We have no intention to initiate war, but we will respond with full force to full spectrum threat that would surprise you,” Ghafoor told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
“Don’t mess with Pakistan.” The army’s response came two days after Prime Minister Imran Khan urged India to share any actionable evidence, offering full co-operation in investigating the blast.