Army firmly stands by Kashmiris: Bajwa
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military leadership said on Tuesday that the army is “prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations” to the Kashmiri people, a statement released by the Inter-services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
During a high-level huddle by the corps commanders at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, the army fully supported the government’s rejection of Indian actions in Kashmir.
“Forum fully supported government’s rejection of Indian actions regarding Kashmir. Pakistan never recognised the sham Indian efforts to legalise its stand on Jammu & Kashmir through article 370 or 35-A decades ago; efforts which have now been revoked by India itself,” the ISPR said in a statement.
“Pakistan army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations in this regard,” it quoted Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa as saying. The conference was held to discuss the “single point agenda.”
On Monday, India revoked special status of occupied Kashmir by abolishing Article 370 of the constitution which gave special autonomy to the Muslim-majority Himalayan region.
The step would mean revocation of a bar on property purchases by people from outside the state. Such plans have in the past provoked warnings of a backlash in Kashmir.
The law had also reserved state government jobs for residents, as well as college places, in an effort to keep the state from being overrun by people from the rest of India.
Following the revocation of Article 370, the Indian Army and Indian Air Force have been put on high alert. Kashmir has been disputed by India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. They have fought two of their three wars over the former principality.
Earlier this year they came close to war yet again, ater a militant atack in Indian Kashmir in February was claimed by a group based in Pakistan, igniting tit-for-tat air strikes.
For three decades the Indian-administered part has been in the grip of an insurgency that has let tens of thousands dead.
Kashmiri rebels and many residents have fought for the Muslim majority region’s independence or to join neighbour Pakistan. Ahead of the announcements, tens of thousands of extra Indian troops were deployed in the territory, and a security lockdown was imposed overnight on Sunday. All telecommunications have been cut there since.