Pakistan Army criticises Gen Dwivedi’s remarks

The Pakistan Army on Sunday criticised Indian Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi’s recent remarks, while urging New Delhi to learn to “co-exist” peacefully.

Gen Dwivedi on Saturday said that if Pakistan continues to harbour terrorists and operate against India, then they have to “decide whether they want to be part of geography or history or not”.

Terming Gen Dwivedi’s comments as “provocative”, the Pakistan Army said that responsible nuclear states reflect restraint, maturity and strategic sobriety.

“Threatening a sovereign nuclear neighbour with elimination from ‘geography’ is not strategic signalling or brinkmanship; it is sheer bankruptcy of cognitive capacities...,” the army said in a statement.

“India needs to reconcile with Pakistan’s salience and learn to peacefully co-exist with it,” it said.

It said that “any attempt to target Pakistan can trigger consequences that shall neither be geographically confined nor strategically or politically palatable for India”.

Recalling the four-day conflict in May last year, it said Indian leadership “would be well advised not to attempt to push South Asia towards another crisis or war whose consequences would only be devastating for the complete region and beyond.”

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year in response to the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed. It carried out airstrikes on nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, eliminating at least 100 terrorists.

The action triggered a rapid escalation in tensions, with Pakistan launching retaliatory strikes, though most of them were thwarted by the Indian military.

The hostilities ended with an understanding on halting the military actions on May 10 following talks over the hotline between army officials of the two sides.