KARACHI: Chaudhri Mohammad Zafrullah Khan on Friday [July 20] declared that the Bharati Prime Minister’s telegram to Mr Liaquat Ali Khan had only intensified “Pakistan’s apprehensions”. The reply is far from reassuring, he said. The Pakistan Foreign Minister was analysing Pandit Nehru’s “hollow assertions” ... at a press conference… He also read out the Pakistan Prime Minister’s rejoinder… Every point of Mr Nehru’s statement, contained in his reply to Pakistan’s protest, Chaudhri Zafrullah said, was “either incorrect, or a half truth or a fallacy”. Massing of Bharati troops … and forward move of the entire Bharati armoured units … indicated “aggressive intentions”, he reiterated.

“Pakistan had made absolutely no troop movement before the concentration of Bharati troops… [”], Mr Zafrullah Khan ... asserted. “Against what is the Indian Army trying to defend whatever it is trying to defend?” he posed a question.

[Meanwhile, according to news agencies in Tel Aviv,] King Abdullah, “bearded lion” of Hashemite Jordan, upon whom the West pinned great hopes in the Middle East, was shot dead … on Friday [July 20] as he entered the el-Aqsa Mosque ... to pray at his father’s tomb.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2026