Hope India will respond positively to PM’s dialogue offer: army chief

ISLAMABAD: Asserting Pakistan’s complete preparedness to defend its motherland, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Wednesday that Pakistan had given an effective response to India, ARY News reported.

Briefing the participants of an in-camera session called to brief parliamentary leaders over rising tension with India, the COAS said none of the Pakistani jets violated the Line of Control (LoC).

The meeting was held to brief parliamentary leaders in the wake of Pakistan’s retaliation to airspace violation by India.

The army chief told the participants that Pakistan shot down Indian planes because they violated aerial boundaries of our country. One Indian aircraft was down inside Pakistan’s territory, while the other was leveled in the occupied-Kashmir, he added.

Also read: Pakistan ready for dialogue, had no choice but to retaliate: PM Imran

“The world powers have also expressed their reservation on the current tension, and they are playing their role to normalise the situation,” he stated.

“The prime minister once again invited India for peace talks and India must reciprocate it wisely”, he continued. The COAS, however, stated that there were suspicions that India may ‘do something’ [in reaction].

He thanked the political parties for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Pakistan Army.

Earlier briefing the participants, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said India violated Pakistan’s airspace on Wednesday and our retaliation in defence had become inevitable.

Qureshi told the meeting that Pakistan must have taken action had India provided some concrete proofs [on the Pulwama attack] in which over 40 Indian soldiers lost their lives.

He said the Indian aggression could also harm the Afghan peace process and put at risk regional security. He insisted that Pakistan didn’t hold any aggressive approach against its neighbours.

The meeting was attended by military leadership, army officials and senior politicians.