ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday categorically rejected claims in Indian media that Pakistan is planning a “surgical strike” against India and warned that irresponsible statements by its (Indian) leadership could hurt regional peace.

“Indian claim about Pakistan planning surgical strike is completely absurd and baseless,” Mr Qureshi told reporters.

Indian media has lately carried speculative reports attributed to intelligence sources alleging that Pakistan Army commandos and Lashkar-i-Taiba fighters were together planning to carry out a major ‘surgical strike’ against Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC). It was further claimed that an attempt by a Pakistani Border Action Team to attack Indian Army’s forward posts was foiled on Dec 31.

Qureshi says irresponsible statements in India due to domestic political considerations could affect regional peace

The reports surfaced in Indian media following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interview in which he said: “It will be a big mistake to think that Pakistan will mend its ways after one fight (a reference to the claimed 2016 surgical strikes after the Uri incident).” Mr Modi had further said that “It’ll take time to make Pakistan mend its ways.”

Mr Qureshi, while emphasising that Pakistan had no such intentions, said that it (Pakistan) wanted peace in the region and neither harboured nor currently harbours any aggressive design against the neighbours. Referring to the longstanding disputes with India, the foreign minister noted that Pakistan wanted their peaceful resolution.

“We are peaceful and want to remain peaceful, but at the same time we understand India’s sinister designs,” he said, adding that any misadventure by India would be responded to with full force.

He said the Indian government wanted to distract its public’s attention from its internal problems by spreading malicious propaganda against Pakistan. Moreover, he said, Modi’s government was seeking to gain political advantage by doing so. “Irresponsible statements due to domestic political considerations could affect regional peace … It was for the world to take notice” of these reckless actions, he maintained.

A day earlier military spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had told Dawn that “Their (Indians) warmongering is through media and because of domestic reasons.”

He said the situation in occupied Kashmir was also fast evolving because of which India was resorting to diversionary tactics.

The situation along the LoC and Working Boundary has aggravated over the years under Modi with a steep increase in ceasefire violations. Just last year there were close to 2,985 truce breaches in which 58 people lost their lives and nearly 300 were injured. Last year’s casualty figure due to ceasefire violations by India was the highest in recent years. The violations were also linked to the strengthening uprising in occupied Kashmir, which Indian troops have failed to quell despite employment of some of worst human rights abuses.

Mr Qureshi said the Indian government was now facing criticism of its brutal human rights repression in occupied Kashmir from inside India and the world was also taking note of those abuses.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2019