India should ready for wonder if starts war and don’t mess with Pakistan

RAWALPINDI, Feb 23, 2019, The Financial Daily. Director General (DG) of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj General Asif Ghafoor responded to Indian propaganda and threats after Pulwama incident in a press conference at General Headquarters in Rawalpndi Friday, reported The Financial Daily.

“You wish to go into war but please be rest assured, should you initiate any aggression – first you shall never be able to surprise us, Pakistan’s armed forces shall never be surprised by you – but let me assure you, we shall surprise you,” the DG ISPR stated.

Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor told India: “Because you initiate, we shall also dominate the escalation ladder. We shall have superior force ratio at decisive point. Never think that due to our commitments elsewhere, we will have any capacity lack.”

“We have singleness of conception from the Prime Minister down to country’s citizens, from three chiefs down to country’s soldiers, all political parties, all segments of life, two hundred and seven million Pakistanis, we have singleness of conception.”

He further remarked that Pakistanis have the will and determination. We have the ways and means to reach our desired end state. We can respond to full spectrum threat and I hope you get this message and don’t mess with Pakistan.

DG ISPR said: “India is saying Pakistan is readying for war. We are not, we are a sovereign state but we have the right to respond with full force.” He said military response by Pakistan will be different as we are not armed forces of the past – we stood on our feet, protected our motherland against all adversaries and have become battle-hardened.

Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said that right after the Pulwama incident, India started raining accusations on Pakistan without thinking and without any evidence. Pakistan has, this time, taken time to respond.

“64 percent of our population is youth and we are in fifth generation warfare, so [their] target is the youth of Pakistan. Will give some context so our youth can understand.” “We have a 72-year history. The partition happened in 1947 and Pakistan was liberated. India still hasn’t been able to accept that.”

He said whenever there is an important event in Pakistan or when Pakistan is becoming more stable, some sort of incident is staged in India or India-occupied Kashmir. “In 2001, attack on the Indian parliament took place ahead of general and presidential elections.”

“Mumbai attacks happened in 2008 at a time when the war against terrorism was progressing well but there were also elections coming up in India.”

“Then the Pathankot incident happened in 2016 at a time when the US president was to give the state of the union address. There were state elections happening in India too. The Pak-India dialogue got scuttled too. So whenever any important event is about to happen, something of this sort [Pulwama] happens.”

“The Uri incident happened on Sept 18, 2016, when our prime minister was set to go to the UNGA to deliver a speech. So this pattern shows that whenever in Pakistan there is some important event due, some staged action of this sort takes place.”

“This month, there were eight key events. Saudi crown prince was visiting, there was a discussion due on terror listing in the United Nations Security Council, Afghan peace talks were underway, there were developments in European Union and the United Nations on Indian Occupied Kashmir, there was also the Jadhav hearing, the FATF hearing, a meeting on Kartarpur border development and PSL matches are scheduled in Pakistan.”

“Apart from this, there is an election campaign in India, and situation is out of India’s control due to indigenous freedom struggle of Kashmiris.”

“Is Pakistan diplomatically isolated? Foreign heads of states are visiting Pakistan, foreign investment is to coming, CPEC development is happening. This all is happening in diplomatic domain. As part of the military diplomacy, joint exercises with China and Russia took place recently, Pakistan Air Forces conducted exercises with US Air Force and Pak Navy recently held Aman 6 exercise,” he added.

“Now look at Pulwama carefully. How can it be that any person from Pakistan can cross the LoC and go into an area where security forces’ population is greater than the local population?

“‘You should ask your security forces, you’ve been sitting there for so many years, you spend so much on defence, how did it happen?’ The attack happened miles away from the border, the explosives were local, the car used was local and the attack too was carried out by a local Kashmiri youth.”

He said Adil Dar (attacker) was forced to respond violently because he was maltreated by Indian security forces few years ago. Interview of his parents is everywhere on the internet. If you do technical analysis of the Adil Dar video, the quality and the distance it was shot from, it gives lots of indicators.

Funeral of Adil Dar was attended by thousands of people and this is a clear indication about situation in Occupied Kashmir, he added.

The DG ISPR further said that many people in India predicted this, even months ago that such incidents could take place before elections.

“Pakistan is adopting a new mindset. Our soldiers and people sacrificed their lives in war against terror. We assisted international troops to defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan for stability in the region.”

DG ISPR Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor explained that Pakistan responded as responsible state. Prime Minister Imran Khan offered help in investigation but asked India to present evidence first.

Prime Minister also offered dialogue as terrorism is regional issue. He said Kashmir issue is core issue and this should be resolved through talks. Violence policy by India is failing in Occupied Kashmir. They need to introspect this. “Two democracies never fight war.”

DG ISPR Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said that countries do not and cannot develop alone, regions develop.

The important press conference was held a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan, while chairing the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting, authorized Armed Forces of Pakistan to respond decisively and comprehensively to any aggression or misadventure by India.

The NSC said in unequivocal terms that the state of Pakistan is not involved in any way, means or form in Pulwama incident and it was conceived, planned and executed indigenously.

“Pakistan has sincerely offered investigation of the incident and dialogue on the issue of terrorism among other disputed issues with India,” the forum said.

The committee said based on the investigation or any tangible evidence provided, State of Pakistan shall take action against anyone found using our soil. However, India also needs deep introspection to realize that why people of Occupied Kashmir have lost fear of death. The violence by Indian forces in Occupied Kashmir is highly counterproductive.

The Committee urged the global community to play its part in resolving the long pending Kashmir issue in accordance with UN resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiris.