New Delhi: India described Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s claim that New Delhi will conduct more airstrikes this month as a “call” to terror groups to conduct another terror attack.
At a press conference in Multan on Sunday, Qureshi stated, “We have reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. As per our information this could take place between April 16 and 20.”
Following a suicide bomb attack that left over 40 Indian security personnel dead in Kashmir, India conducted airstrikes against a Jaish-e-Mohammed facility in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26. A day later, Pakistan Air Force fighter jets intruded into Indian territory in Kashmir and captured an Indian pilot, who was later released.
The perception that South Asia was on a tinder box had led to interventions by multiple international actors, from the United states to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to de-escalate the situation.
Since then, Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that the Indian government has been fostering “war hysteria” to fuel its re-election prospects.
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In response to Qureshi’s remarks, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar retorted that the former’s “irresponsible and preposterous statement” had the “clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region”.
“This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India,” he said.
If Pakistan has “actionable and credible intelligence” about “imminent terror attacks, it should inform India through “established diplomatic and DGMO channels,” said Kumar.
The Indian spokesperson said that New Delhi “reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross-border terrorist attack”.
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Kumar added that Pakistan cannot absolve its responsibility for a cross-border terrorist attack in India. “No attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed.”
Echoing previous Indian statements, he stated that Pakistan needs to take “credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism”.