Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Babar Iftikhar has said that Pakistan has exposed Indian state sponsorship of terrorism in its dossier containing incontrovertible evidence.
In an interview with Global Village Space, DG ISPR Major General Babar Iftikhar said that Pakistan’s dossier containing irrefutable evidence of India’s sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan has exposed New Delhi’s nefarious designs at the international level.
Responding to a question about how the world reacted to Indian involvement in terrorism in Pakistan, the military’s spokesperson replied, “After Pakistan’s dossier, the world now is openly talking about India’s sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan.”
The dossier also contains details of rights violations by the Indian government in the occupied Kashmir., the DG ISPR said and added that New Delhi is on the back foot after August 5, 2019. He said that a copy of the dossier was also submitted to the office of the United Nations Secretary General’s office.
Major General Babar Iftikhar said that since the August 5, 2019 move, India has been in a weak position in the world and has received a lot of negative press.
Answering about next steps of Pakistan, the DG ISPR said that Foreign Office presented the dossier to P5 and UN Secretary General and now Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has released a very strongly worded statement about what is happening in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He further said that Pakistan will take the dossier to every possible forum and series of action are being taken in this regard.
When asked about the nature of threat from anti-CPEC cell which reports directly to Indian PM Narendra Modi, the DG said that Indians see CPEC as a game changer and with this project Pakistan is becoming a connectivity hub for the whole region.
The CPEC is facing security threats and now India has started talking about starting and ending the CPEC route in a bid to make the project controversial. India wants to retard the pace of the project as it has decided that there is a timeline after which this project becomes irreversible, he revealed.
Answering a question about disinformation on social media, Maj Gen Iftikhar said that it has been a major challenge.
“The best way to handle [fake news disseminating] on social media is transparency, not leaving any information voids, and passing on credible information. That is exactly what we are doing,” he said.
“[These social media tactics and disinformation campaign to malign Pakistan] is a major onslaught. It is a major part of the fifth-generation warfare against Pakistan and we are aware of that.”
He said that in its fifth-generation warfare, India has been targeting Pakistan in the diplomatic, economic, and information domains, among others.
“Basically, India is trying to target Pakistan from different directions to slow down our progress as well as the trajectory that Pakistan has for the future,” he said.
Answering a question about taking the issue of Afghan soil use with the country’s government, he said that Pakistan keeps having these conversations with them and also shared the details of the dossier; however we also acknowledge capacity issues of Afghan government and that is why Pakistan does not blame them.
However. he assured that with the kind of steps Pakistan has taken, India will not be able to harm the project in any way.
Talking about the Line of Control (LoC) ceasefire violations, Major General Babar Iftikhar said that India is trying to tag indigenous freedom struggle as terrorism and link it with Pakistan. Increase in intensity and lethality of the violation started from 2014 but 2019 and 2020 have seen maximum violations, he added.
Pakistan is taking diplomats and media to LoC and showed them that there is no way infiltration can take from Pakistan and India has 900,000 military personnel in IIOJK while the entire Pakistan Army consists of about 600,000 servicemen.
He also said that India is trying to divert the attention of the world to Pakistan through the LoC violations because “India understands whether they fire at or we fire at them it is Kashmiris that are being hurt and through this they are trying to drive a wedge between Pakistan Army and people living in the region.” He said that Pakistan wants to ensure better management of western border and for that purpose the country is fencing the border as it is very porous. He also revealed that by the end of this month Pakistan will have completely fenced its border with Afghanistan.
Emphasising the importance of border management for government and military, DG ISPR said that a Border Management Division has been raised to centrally articulate all points of entry whether from land or sea. Talking about Afghan peace process, he said that Pakistan’s role in the whole process is of a facilitator and everyone including the United States and Afghanistan are acknowledging it. Now Afghans have to decide about their future, he added.
