Pakistan ready to counter any external threat, asserts Nawaz Sharif

Islamabad, September 30

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawz Sharif condemned what it called “cross-border firing” and “Indian aggression” on Friday and warned of retaliation, even though it continued to deny claims of it having been a “surgical strike”. 

At a Cabinet review meeting he chaired, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawz Sharid said the government would do all it could to protect its people and territorial integrity against “any act of aggression from across the Line of Control”.

He claimed that "Indian agression" posed a threat to the region, The Express Tribune reported.

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"No one will be allowed to cast an evil eye on Pakistan," Sharif said, adding that it was also “fully capable of executing surgical strikes”. "The nation is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the valiant armed forces to defend the motherland." 

Sharif also called Kashmir “unfinished agenda of the partition” and said India "atrocities” in the state were “unacceptable”.

Sharif also demanded investigation into September 18’s terrorist strike at Kashmir’s Uri in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed and said India’s blaming Pakistan for “engineering” it was beyond comprehension. 

'Befitting response'

Pakistan's Army chief General Raheel Sharif has warned that any "misadventure" by India will be met with the "most befitting response".

Expressing operational preparedness of the Pakistan Army, Gen Sharif said: "Any misadventure by our adversary will meet the most befitting response from Pakistan. Pakistan can't be coerced through any amount of malicious propaganda."  According to an Inter-Services Public Relations statement, Gen Sharif while talking to troops exhorted all commanders to lay more emphasis on combat readiness. He emphasised that training in peacetime is the only guarantor of averting war and winning it if imposed.

Gen Sharif also said that "highest" state of vigil was being maintained along the LoC and all along the International Border.

Indian Army said on Thursday it conducted military strikes across the border on seven terrorist launch pads on Thursday, claiming there were “significant casualties”.

Pakistan however dismisses the claims, calling it “cross-border firing”, “a fabrication of the truth” and India’s “quest” for media hype.

The strikes by India came in the wake of the Uri militant attack. —  Agencies