Pakistan rejects PM’S surgical strike remarks
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks about surgical strikes by India’s special forces along the Line of Control (LOC) in September 2016, describing them as “false and baseless”.
Modi had referred to the strikes, carried out in the wake of a string of attacks by Pakistanbased terrorists that targeted military facilities in Kashmir, during an interaction with the Indian diaspora in London on Wednesday.
During a weekly news briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said Pakistan had already “condemned the claims of surgical strikes”. He added, “Repeating a lie doesn’t turn it into the truth.”
Responding to Modi’s comments on Pakistan exporting terrorism, Faisal alleged it is India that is supporting terror in Pakistan.
Faisal also raised the issue of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer arrested by Pakistani security agencies on charges of involvement in spying and subversive activities, and said, “The whole world knows who the terrorists are and who their head is.”
He said the capture of Jadhav is “proof of who has been carrying out terrorist activities”.
Faisal added “Jadhav is proof of state-sponsored terrorism being carried out by India” and that Pakistan knows how to defend itself.
India has dismissed the charges levelled against Jadhav and said he was kidnapped by Pakistani security agencies from Iran, where he was running a business.
During his interaction in London, Modi had said that India would not tolerate those who “export terror” and would respond to them “in the language they understand”.
He also said that before news of the surgical strikes was shared with the media, India contacted the Pakistan government to inform it about the operation.
In September 2016, India had said the surgical strikes targeted terror launch pads across the LOC and inflicted “significant casualties”.
The Pakistani military had dismissed this as a “quest by the Indian establishment to create media hype” and said it would strongly respond to any strike on Pakistani soil.
In response to Modi’s comments on Pakistan exporting terrorism, Dr Faisal said that it was the other way around and that India was backing terrorists in Pakistan.
“Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav is proof of Indian state-sponsored terrorism,” he said.
PAKISTAN FOREIGN OFFICE SPOKESPERSON MOHAMMAD FAISAL SAID THAT THE CAPTURE OF JADHAV IS ‘PROOF OF WHO HAS BEEN CARRYING OUT TERRORIST ACTIVITIES’