ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: Pakistan on Tuesday said it would not start its pledged withdrawal of troops from its eastern border with India until New Delhi made the first move, a demand India scoffed at.
“India has to start first,” military spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi told AFP.
“Pakistan is waiting for India, obviously. They are the ones who concentrated their troops on the border first. We didn’t do it, it’s the Indians who did it.”
“It’s India who decided to put troops there, this distinction should be made,” Qureshi said.
“They aggravated the situation, they put their troops on the borders, Pakistan did not do that. We just did whatever was required for our defence.”
India on Tuesday scoffed at the demand, saying it will begin the pullout at its own convenience and not at the behest of its estranged neighbour.
“Our redeployment is not dependent on decisions of Pakistan and we will redeploy as per our schedules,” defence ministry spokesman P.K. Bandopadhaya told AFP in New Delhi.
“Modalities such as time-frame, et cetera, have to be determined by the various service headquarters within the policy frame-work and our redeployment will be done as per our assessments,” he said.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna echoed Bandopadhaya.
“India’s reasons for redeployment, the factors that have been kept in view, the fact that we are ready to respond to any emergency and the modalities are details which would be worked out by the ministry of defence,” he said. Neither India nor Pakistan intend to demilitarise the LoC.—AFP
