Fully prepared for ‘befitting response’ to ‘Indian aggression’: Pak Army

Islamabad: The Pakistani armed forces are fully prepared to give a “befitting response” to India if it resorts to any aggression or misadventure, said the military’s media wing of the Pakistan army on Monday.
The statement was the outcome of a meeting between the army and air chiefs of the country, which followed a visit by Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to the Air Headquarters in Islamabad.
During their meeting, Gen Bajwa and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan deliberated upon the operational environment in the region including “threat and response”, said a tweet by Inter-Services Public Relations chief Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor.
“Pak Armed Forces are fully prepared for a befitting response to any Indian aggression or misadventure,” the tweet said.
It added that the chiefs of the army and air staffs expressed their satisfaction on the readiness, coordination and synergy of the armed forces.
The ISPR statement comes a day after Gen Bajwa and Air Chief Marshal Khan in their separate remarks expressed the armed forces’ resolve to protect the country.
The army chief had said that defending the motherland is the most sacred act while the air chief promised that the Pakistan Air Force would “thwart any misadventure by the enemy”.
The statements by the top brass of the armed forces come amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following an attack on Indian security forces in occupied Kashmir’s Pulwama district, in which at least 40 paramilitary soldiers were killed on February 14.
According to media reports, Jaish-e-Muhammad claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing but New Delhi immediately blamed Islamabad and threatened a retaliatory attack. It also announced that it would launch a diplomatic offensive to isolate Pakistan in the international community. Moreover, India scrapped the Most Favoured Nation status granted to Pakistan and imposed a 200 per cent customs duty on its goods.