KARACHI: Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has rejected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated claims of “imaginary” surgical strikes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, saying the premier was being misled by his military commanders.

Mr Modi, who is currently visiting the UK, had claimed on Wed­n­esday that before making the news of the ‘surgical strikes’ public, India had repeatedly attem­pted to contact Pakistan government to inform them about the operation.

Pakistan, he alleged, had put up a “terror export factory” in place and India would respond to them “in the language they understand”, referring to the 2016 ‘surgical stri­kes’ across the Line of Control (LoC).

Responding to the allegation in a tweet on Friday, the foreign minister asserted that the Indian army was involved in “worst atrocities and war crimes in Kashmir and elsewhere in India”.

“Modi’s repeated claims of ima­gi­nary surgical strikes ran attempt to shore up dwindelling public support or he is being taken for a ride by his Army commanders who are culpable of worst atrocities and war crimes in Kashmir and elsewhere in India...” said Mr Asif.

Earlier on Thursday, the Foreign Office had rejected the claims telling New Delhi that repeating lies did not make them true. “Constant repetition of a fallacious claim does not make it real. The Indian government is increasingly sounding like a broken record,” it said.

In Sept 2016, India claimed to have carried out a surgical strike on suspected terrorist targets across the LoC. The claim was made days after four terrorists attacked a military camp near Uri in India-held Kashmir killing around 19 soldiers.

The Pakistan military, however, had swiftly rubbished the notions of a surgical strike, saying: “This quest by the Indian establishment to create media hype by rebranding cross-border fire as a surgical strike is fabrication of the truth. Pakistan has made it clear that if there is a surgical strike on Pakistani soil, the same will be strongly responded.”

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018