Army chief General Raheel Sharif has said be it Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi or its spy agency RAW, they must know that Pakistan’s boundaries were completely safe.
“We have well understood the conspiracies [being hatched against Pakistan],” General Raheel said while addressing a seminar relating to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Gilgit on Thursday.
In his address on Indian Independence Day, Modi had said Pakistan would have to answer for its ‘human rights’ violation in Balochistan and the Pakistani side of Kashmir.
“We are aware of our enemies, know their tactics and to spoil their designs we would go beyond even the last limit,” Army chief said. Pakistan’s army was second to none and a battle hardened force, he added.ht direction, the Army chief said the evil nexus of corruption and terrorism will be broken at all costs and at every level.
There was no one more hard-working than the people of Gilgit, the COAS said, adding he was absolutely certain that the nation was heading in the right direction.
He also reassured that “we will materialise CPEC” and Gilgit, which is the gateway to the $46 billion umbrella project, would be developed at par with the neighbouring Chinese cities.
Army chief also announced to set up a second Special Security Division, to be called South SSD that will provide security from Rawalpindi to Gwadar.
The first North SSD will ensure CPEC security from Khunjrab to Rawalpindi besides assisting the stakeholders, including province, in matters relating to CPEC, General Raheel added.
Earlier on Thursday, head of the military’s media wing Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa said Pakistan Army did not play any favourites during the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb, adding that Islamic State’s effort to establish foothold in the country had been thwarted.
Bajwa added that all stakeholders including Afghanistan were informed of Operation Zarb-e-Azb and they were required to take action terrorists, which did not happen.
The DG observed that the operation in North Waziristan’s Shawal, the last haven of terrorists, had managed to clear the valley’s villages, houses, schools and mosques.
Regarding MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s speech, the DG ISPR said no Pakistani could allow someone sitting in a foreign country to deliver anti-state talk.
The Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched on June 2014 to purge the country, especially the restive North Waziristan, of terrorist elements and destroy their last safe havens.Pakistan has questioned the motive behind trilateral talks to be held between Afghanistan, the United States and India on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session later this month.
“We are not sure what is the need for it, what this proposed arrangement hopes to achieve, and what would be its parameters and modalities,” Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said at the weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday.
He was responding to a question about the recent announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry that the US would open the trilateral talks with the aim of stabilising Afghanistan.
“My hope is that Pakistan as a country is not isolated by this but is encouraged by this,” Kerry had said.
Pakistan has long considered India’s role in Afghanistan with suspicion and often accused its intelligence agencies for using the neighbouring country’s soil to create trouble in Balochistan.
The US move came at a time when relations between Pakistan and India are strained by the ongoing unrest in Kashmir. Ties have further soured after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his independence day’s speech to raise the issue of Balochistan.
Zakaria, however, dismissed the Indian prime minister’s assertions as an attempt to divert what he said atrocities being committed by the Indian forces in held Kashmir.
He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had written another letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, terming Modi’s remarks on Balochistan as unwarranted and in in complete contravention of the UN Charter.
Asked to comment on the Indo-US defence pact, the spokesperson said it was an agreement between two sovereign states, hoping it would contribute to peace and stability.
However, Zakaria added a word of caution by suggesting that “Pakistan would like to see that such arrangements do not contribute to polarising the region by disturbing the strategic balance in South Asia and escalating the arms buildup”.
The agreement signed by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parikar on Monday is seen as part of efforts by the two countries to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China, especially in the South China Sea.
In reply to another question, the spokesperson said the main purpose of government’s initiative to dispatch special envoys comprising elected representatives to different world capitals was to highlight the situation in Indian-held Kashmir.
Zakaria said Pakistan also urged the UN to hold Indian forces accountable for the atrocities they were committing in the held territory.
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