‘No expiry’ : Pakistan says India ceasefire ‘continues’
Ishaq Dar says India’s narrative was a total farce.
“India failed to link Pakistan with terror attack.”
FM Dar says not a single F-16 was airborne.
ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said the ceasefire between Pakistan and India is a continuous operation and the directors of general military operations (DGMOs) from both sides are regularly in contact with each other for de-escalation and demobilisation.
Speaking on Geo News’ programme “Naya Pakistan” on Sunday, Dar said the DGMOs had discussed the situation on May 10, 12 and 14, and were scheduled to engage again on May 18. He was pretty sure that the DGMOs would have engaged again.
The foreign minister said his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar had not officially intimated Pakistan prior to the military strikes.
Jaishankar told reporters last week that India had explicitly informed Pakistan the strikes were “targeted solely at terrorist infrastructure, not military installations.”
“We gave Pakistan the option to remain a silent bystander and not intervene, but they chose to ignore this prudent advice,” he said.
‘Punch’
Meanwhile, Dar said India’s narrative was a total farce, as it failed to furnish proof linking the Pahalgam “terrorist” attack to Pakistan.
To a question, he said India’s claim of shooting down an F-16 fighter was outright a lie, as not a single F-16 was airborne.
“Our brave armed forces gave a measured and brutal response to India both in the air and on the ground, for which we are humbly thankful to Allah Almighty,” he said.
“Some countries warned us that India would ‘punch’ us in response to the Pahalgam incident. Our response was that if India dared to attack us, we would also land India a punch,” the foreign minister said.
“After May 7, many countries requested us to exercise restraint but the night of May 9 exacerbated our patience. We told a number of countries we were in contact with that we have not so far responded to the Indian aggression,” the foreign minister said.
“And they authenticated our claim that we had not targeted any of their military installations. We had committed to the international community that we won’t strike first.”
‘No expiry date’ of ceasefire
On Sunday, the Indian army said there was “no expiry date” to the understanding reached between the DGMOs on cessation of hostilities nearly a week back, The News reported.
The clarification came following reports that the arrangement between the two militaries on stopping the hostilities was ending on Sunday evening.
On May 12, the DGMOs decided to continue with the understanding of halting all military actions. The arrangement was originally reached for two days when the DGMOs held a conversation over the hotline on May 10.
“As far as continuation of break in hostilities, as decided in DGMOs interaction of May 12 are concerned, there is no expiry date to it,” the Indian Army said in a brief clarification.