Defense Minister Khawaja Asif warned on Monday that India could perform a military strike at any time along the control line (LOC) as diplomatic and security tensions between the two nuclear armed nations escalate after the Pahagam attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
“There are reports that India can strike at any time along the LOC … New Delhi gets an appropriate answer,” he told journalists in Islamabad.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for an international commission to investigate the incident. “Such a probe would postpone whether India itself or any internal group was involved, clarifying the truth behind New Delhi’s baseless claims,” Asif said.
The Minister accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “pushing the region to the brink of nuclear war” of political gains and repeated Pakistan’s long-standing accusations of Indian involvement in terrorism in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.
“We had given UN evidence in 2016 and 2017, including videos of India that funded terrorism,” he claimed. He also linked the recent wave of terror in KP and Balochistan to groups operating from Afghanistan allegedly supported by India.
Asif also asked the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) party’s absence from an important security briefing a day earlier and said, “I don’t know why PTI chose not to participate.”
He added that both parliamentary houses have adopted decisions about the crisis and the parties are free to call an all parties conference if they choose.
