RISALPUR: Declaring that Pakistan is fully capable of responding to any kind of aggression, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has warned “the enemy” that any misadventure would come at an “unbearable cost”.

“Our armed forces are fully capable of responding to all sorts of internal or external threats or aggression. If the enemy ever resorts to a misadventure, regardless of its size and scale, it will have to pay an unbearable cost,” he said at the passing-out parade of the Pakistan Air Force cadets in Risalpur on Monday.

Apparently, the army chief’s warning came against the backdrop of a recent threat made by Indian Air Force chief B.S. Dhanoa who said last week that if India needed to carry out a surgical strike, his aircraft could target Pakistan’s nuclear installations and destroy them.

Speaking as the chief guest at the ceremony, Gen Bajwa said: “Pakistan is a peace-loving country and wants to promote peace all around as it is the assurance of our own internal stability.

“We stand firmly committed to this cause and will not allow anybody to misinterpret our actions.”

Talking about the country’s ongoing fight against terrorism, he said that “our national struggle” against terrorism had largely been successful, but it was unfortunate that the international community had failed to recognise the country’s efforts and sacrifices in “our war on terror”.

“No country has sacrificed as much as we have and achieved enormous success,” he said, adding that Pakis­tan was the only country which had successfully fought the menace of terrorism and was still eradicating its residual through counterterrorism operation Raddul Fasaad.

“It is our resolve that we will make Pakistan a terror-free country, come what may,” he said, adding that it would be done sooner than later by the armed forces with the continuous public support.

Praising the remarkable role of the PAF in the fight against terrorism, he said the PAF was instrumental in annihilating and destroying a number of terrorists’ sanctuaries and training camps along the Pak-Afghan border.

“PAF has achieved a number of milestones in its journey towards modernisation in recent years. It has a variety of modern platforms and efforts are under way to further enhance its operational capabilities,” Gen Bajwa said, adding that the army considered “a strong and agile PAF as a critical enabler to fight both conventional and sub-conventional wars successfully”.

Earlier, the army chief was received by Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman at the PAF Academy Asghar Khan.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2017