'Pakistan will surprise India in war': Pak Army warns India, raises questions over 'timing' of Pulwama attack
Pakistan continued in denial mode on Pulwama incident and even raising finger on India over the terror attack.
Despite being further isolated in the international community, Pakistan continued in denial mode on Pulwama terror attack. It even raised questions on the timing of the attack and hinted at Indian role in the incident.
The powerful UN Security Council has strongly condemned the "heinous and cowardly" Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and underlined the need to hold perpetrators of these "reprehensible acts" of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice. Terror watchdog FATF has also slammed Pakistan for not doing enough to curb terror finances saying "it does not demonstrate a proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM".
However, Pakistan's Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor was soon back to issuing 'hollow' threats and warnings to India. Ghafoor repeated Pakistan PM Imran Khan's words warning India against initiating any action against it. He said that Pakistan army would surprise its arch-rivals in case of a war.
“Pakistan armed forces will never be surprised by you (India) but we shall surprise you," Ghafoor said while addressing a Press Conference in Rawalpindi on Friday.
On February 14, a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a CRPF bus in Pulwama district, killing at least 40 personnel and leaving many critically wounded.
Pakistan Army general blamed India for trying to destabilise the country. "Whenever the situation improves in Pakistan, India tries to destabilise the country," Ghafoor alleged.
Pakistan even tried to deflect the blame of Pulwama attack on India raising finger on the timing of the terror attack. Talking about the Pulwama attack, which took place on February 14, Ghafoor said that India started raining accusations on Pakistan without thinking and without any evidence.
The director general ISPR said that Pulwama attack occurred when Pakistan had important eight events happening in and out of the Country. He listed past terror incidents in India in an apparent attempt to support his claim that such incident occurred only when there was something big going on India.
Pakistan continued to portray itself as a 'peaceful' nation in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. Major General Asif Ghafoor even took shot at India media for calling for strong action against the perpetrators of the attack. He said that the Indian media is only doing 'war journalism' whereas Pakistani media is promoting peace journalism.
Pakistan Army pointed out that the attack took place miles away from the Line of Control (LoC) and the explosives used were not from Pakistan.
"The car used was not from Pakistan either. The attack was carried out by a youngster from occupied Kashmir who was mistreated by Indian security forces," Ghafoor said.
"In February, when the Pulwama attack happened there were eight important events in Pakistan — Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman's visit, Afghan reconciliation process, UNSC talking about terror financing, EU deliberating on human rights violations in Kashmir, Kulbhushan Jadhav hearing, FATF hearing and decision on Pakistan, PSL and Kartarpur meeting. The elections are upcoming in India and the indigenous struggle in occupied Kashmir is high."
“What would Pakistan benefit from Pulwama attack in light of these events? Pakistan would be at a loss,” Ghafoor said.
Ghafoor also denied that Pakistan was preparing for war. "We do not wish to go to war but please be rest assured should you initiate any aggression, first you will never be able to surprise us. But let me assure you, we will surprise you. We shall also dominate the escalation ladder. Never think due to our commitments elsewhere we will have any capacity lack," he said.
"We have the will and determination, ways and means to reach our desired state. We can respond to a full spectrum threat. We hope you get this and don’t mess with Pakistan," he said.
Ghafoor did not mention Jaish-e-Mohammed and Maulana Masood Azhar in his press conference. Masood Azhar's Jaish has openly accepted its involvement in the Pulwama terror attack but Pakistan Army did not mention a word about him.
Earlier on Friday, India got big support from the United Nations Security Council when the big five at UN condemned the Pulwama attack in the "strongest terms" terming the attack as "heinous and cowardly".
"The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in over 40 Indian paramilitary forces dead and dozens wounded on February 14, 2019, for which Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility," the UNSC press statement on the 'Suicide Bombing in Pulwama' said.