ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday chaired a high-level National Security Committee meeting to discuss the “geo strategic and national security environment and situation arising after the Pulwama Incident,” according to press release issued by the PM Office. 
“The forum noted that the state of Pakistan is not involved in any way, means or form in the said incident,” said the official statement issued after the meeting that was attended by cabinet members including Finance Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, intelligence officials and all three service chiefs including chief of army staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
“The incident was conceived, planned and executed indigenously,” the high-powered huddle said in the statement while expecting that India would respond “positively to the offers” of dialogue and investigation of the incident made by Prime Minister Khan in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday. 
“Based on the investigation or any tangible evidence provided, State of Pakistan shall take action against anyone found using our soil,” the statement said, adding that India should also do “introspection” as to why people of Indian-administered Kashmir have “lost fear of death.” 
The NSC termed the violence in the Indian-administered Kashmir as “highly counterproductive” and urged the global community to play its part in resolving the long pending Kashmir issue. 
The Prime Minister said that his government was determined to demonstrate to the people that “the State is capable of protecting them and believes that monopoly of violence stays with State,” according to the statement. 
The NSC noted that terrorism and extremism are the top issues in the region and that Pakistan alone has endured over 70,000 casualties in the process besides heavy loss to national exchequer, which led the country to devise the National Action Plan in 2014 — outlining concrete sequenced measures with consensus of all political parties and institutions of Pakistan. 
“Having addressed direct threat to State of Pakistan, we need to move to ensure that militancy and extremism are routed from the society and the State never becomes hostage to extremists,” the statement quoted the prime minister as saying, adding that the premier directed both the interior ministry and the security institutions to immediately accelerate actions on ground. 
At the same time, the Prime Minister authorized the Armed Forces of Pakistan to “respond decisively and comprehensively to any aggression or misadventure by India,” the statement read.
Ties between both the nuclear-armed neighbors deteriorated after a suicide bomber rammed into a convoy of India’s paramilitary force in Pulwama district of the Indian-administered Kashmir and killed over 40 soldiers. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for its involvement in the incident, but Islamabad denies the allegation.
Security analysts have termed Pakistan’s response to Indian allegations and aggression after the Pulwama incident as “measured, positive and well-calculated.”
General (retd) Talat Masood, defense and security analyst, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was intentionally ratcheting up the issue without any evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pulwama incident.
“There is no option of war as both (Pakistan and India) are nuclear-armed countries. But even the heightened tensions on the border will only result in economic loss on both the sides,” he told Arab News, hoping that “better sense will prevail in India after the upcoming general elections.”
Tahir Malik, academic and expert on international affairs, said that India should respond to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer of dialogue on all outstanding issues including terrorism as “this is the only way forward.”
“Decision-makers in both the countries should avoid war-mongering and instead join hands for betterment of the people through enhancement of bilateral trade and cooperation in other fields of life,” he told Arab News.