——— Asserts ‘India is not the US, and Pakistan is not Afghanistan. India is not Israel, and Pakistan is not Palestine’
——— Adds Pakistan hopeful ceasefire with India will hold, military hotline remains open
——— Senior officers from both sides stayed in touch, communication prevented further escalation
RAWALPINDI: Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has said Pakistan is a peace-loving country, but any act of Indian aggression will be met with a swift and decisive re-sponse. Speaking in an interview with Anadolu Agency, the military spokesperson said that Pakistan would not accept any form of regional dominance. “Pakistan will never bow down to Indian hegemony,” he said, adding that “the sooner they [India] realise this, the better it will be for regional peace and the world.” “India is not the US, and Pakistan is not Afghanistan. India is not Israel, and Pakistan is not Palestine. Pakistan will never be deterred,” DG ISPR said, adding that that Islamabad remains committed to its sovereignty and regional stability.
Lt Gen Chaudhry also attributed rising extremism and terrorism within India to its domestic policies, particularly crackdowns on religious minorities such as Muslims and Sikhs. “These actions are contrib-uting to increased internal unrest,” he added.
The sharp remarks come in the wake of India’s unilateral suspension of the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty last month, following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan — a claim Islamabad has categorically denied.
Since then, the region has once again been pushed to the brink. In early May, India launched a barrage of cross-border strikes, not only across the Line of Control (LoC) but also into Pakistan’s mainland, claiming it was targeting militant hideouts.
Pakistan hit back, targeting 26 Indian military sites before a US-brokered ceasefire brought operations to a halt on May 10.
However, calm has remained fragile. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s declaration this week that India would cut off Indus waters flowing into Pakistan has reignited fears of escalation. For Islamabad, such a move is tantamount to an act of war.
Seperately, speaking with Arab News, DG ISPR cautioned that any move by India to block Pakistan’s water would cross a red line.
“It is some madman who can think that he can stop water of 240 million plus people of this country,” he said.
“I hope that time doesn’t come, but it will be such actions that the world will see and the consequenc-es of that we will fight for years and decades to come. Nobody dare stop water of Pakistan.”
The DG ISPR revealed that India lost six aircraft, including French-built Rafales and a Mirage 2000, as well as a prized Russian-made S-400 air defence system, during the four-day exchange.
Earlier reports had put the number at five, but Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed the sixth loss this week.
“I can confirm that the sixth aircraft is a Mirage 2000,” Lt Gen Chaudhry said. “We only targeted the aircraft … We could have taken out more, but we showed restraint,” he noted.
Looking ahead, Chaudhry warned that the spectre of renewed conflict will continue to haunt the re-gion unless the core issue – Kashmir – is addressed head-on.
“Their policy on Kashmir is not working,” he stated. “Till the time Indians don’t sit and talk about Kash-mir, then (as) two countries we sit, and we find a solution to it, the conflict potential is there.”
Separately, in a firm riposte to regional misperceptions, the DG ISPR said that Pakistan is not a belliger-ent actor but a country that values peace above all.
“We are not a violent nation, we are a serious nation. Our first priority is peace,” Lt Gen Chaudhry told RT Arabic in an interview, as reported by PTV News.
“Great and sensible powers like the United States understand better what the spirit of Pakistan’s peo-ple is,” he added. –Agencies
