KHUZDAR: Deputy Chairman of Senate and secretary general of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said on Sunday that India and some other foreign powers were hatching conspiracies against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

He was addressing a public meeting in Kalat.

Maulana Haideri said the government and people of Pakistan would foil all conspiracies against the CPEC project.

He warned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi against trying to impose war on Pakistan, saying that the armed forces of Pakistan were prepared to defend every inch of the motherland and counter any military misadventure by India. If Indian forces attack Pakistan, the country’s armed forces will teach them an exemplary lesson.

The Senate deputy chairman rejected the Indian government’s claims of carrying out surgical strikes inside Azad Kashmir. When Indian troops fired shots across the Line of Control, Pakistani forces responded in a befitting manner, silencing the Indian guns, he added.

He said Indians had no courage to attack Pakistan, knowing that the country was a nuclear power.

Maulana Haideri criticised the Indian government for the killings of thousands of innocent people in held Kashmir and said the Kashmiris’ struggle for independence from India could not be suppressed by force.

He said Pakistan did not want war and showed restraint despite Indian provocations. He said Pakistan would continue its support to the freedom movement of Kashmiris who were demanding the right to self-determination.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2016