Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar Thursday said the news circulating in Indian media claiming additional deployment of Pakistan Army troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and alleged use of Skardu Airbase by China is ‘false, irresponsible and far from truth’.
“There is no such movement or induction of additional forces taken place. We also vehemently deny presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan,” he tweeted.
Indian media outlets claimed that Pakistan had deployed almost 20,000 additional soldiers along the LoC in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and GB ‘to match Chinese deployments on the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in the east’. “The level of troops Pakistan has deployed is more than what it did after the Balakot air strikes. Pakistani radars are believed to be fully activated all along the region too,” a report by Economic Times claimed. Furthermore, the publication claimed that meetings have been held between China and Pakistan officials and the former is also holding talks with the Al-Badr outfit in order to ‘incite violence’ in occupied valley of Kashmir. Indian news outlets also claimed that a Chinese refueller aircraft was spotted at Pakistan’s Skardu airbase, which the DG ISPR denied.
Separately, Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui on Thursday said India cannot wash away the truth by fake news after the images flashed across the world depicting ‘callousness and inhumanity of the occupation forces’. “The heart-wrenching picture of the three-year-old boy in Sopore will forever remain seared in the imagination of all those who believe in humanity, human rights and fundamental freedom,” she said in her opening statement at a weekly press briefing here at the Foreign Office.
A 64-year-old civilian was shot dead in front of his toddler grandson by security forces in Indian valley of Kashmir, leaving a big question mark on the human rights situation in the territory.
Aisha Farooqui said as Indian-held Kashmir braced 332nd day of continued brutalization, the sufferings of innocent people could not remain hidden from the world. “India cannot wash away the truth by fake news and turning its propaganda machinery faster,” she said. On the Line of Control, she mentioned that 1,546 ceasefire violations took place in the first six months of this year, resulting in 14 martyred and 114 seriously injured.
The FO spokesperson said Pakistan categorically rejected the grant of domicile certificates in Indian-held Kashmir by the Indian authorities to reportedly 25,000 Indian nationals. “The certificates issued to non-Kashmiris including, among others, the Indian government officials under ‘Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure), 2020’ are illegal, void and in complete violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and International law including the 4th Geneva Convention,” she said, adding that Pakistan remains ready to engage in endeavours to facilitate closer Pakistan-Afghanistan economic partnership and regional connectivity projects.
About meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, she said Pakistan’s commitment to continue working with regional and international partners to support efforts for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan was highlighted.
She said the foreign minister highlighted Pakistan’s positive contribution to the US-Taliban direct talks culminating in the Peace Agreement of February 29 and stressed that the Afghan leaders should seize this historic opportunity and work together to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive political settlement. She said Pakistan has been consistently sensitizing the international community about the Indian leadership’s threatening statements to use terrorism as a tool to destabilize Pakistan. Pakistan has already shared with the international community, incriminating evidence about the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW’s involvement in terrorist activities, she added.
On repatriation of stranded Pakistanis abroad in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, the spokesperson said embassies and consulates were working round the clock in accordance with a comprehensive repatriation plan. She said 257 Pakistanis in past few days were repatriated from Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore and Brunei, 9,504 from Dubai and Northern Emirates, 1,430 from Jeddah, 25 from Dushanbe and 96 from Kazakhstan. So far, 113,154 Pakistani nationals have been repatriated from different parts of the world, she added.
