ISLAMABAD: Tension has once again heightened between Pakistan and India after the latest exchange of heavy fire across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, on Friday, held a consultative meeting with Pakistan’s former foreign secretaries in Islamabad and discussed “precarious regional peace” and developments concerning Kashmir.
Qureshi said the country’s armed forces and people were ready to protect the motherland.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said while addressing a public rally in Punjab’s Jhelum district that “Pakistan army was ready for them (India) in case of any misadventure or attack on Azad Kashmir.”
Khan warned that India could carry out “some sort of action” in Azad Kashmir to divert attention from its domestic issues. He said he has discussed the threats from India at length with with army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Pakistan has been accusing India of cease-fire violations along the LoC terming them as a threat to regional peace and security that could lead to a strategic miscalculation. On Thursday Pakistan said that two of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian forces across the LoC.
Last week, FM Qureshi said that in the backdrop of recent tensions “it continues to be our persistent concern that India may resort to a “false flag” attack to divert world attention.”
“Pakistan remains concerned over India ratcheting up the tensions and continued provocative actions along the LoC as well as the fallout from violent communal disturbances within India. The BJP government has always externalized its internal self-created problems by playing the Pakistan card,” Pakistan’s former foreign secretary Salman Bashir told Arab News.
“With mounting political and economic difficulties at home the BJP could fish for trouble along our border to divert public attention,” Bashir added.
Foreign Affairs analyst Qamar Cheema said that Pakistan believes the “Indian government may use limited scale military conflict as tool to divert attention from law and order situation at home.”
Pakistan’s foreign minister, in a letter to President of Security Council and UN Secretary General last week, said “It remains imperative for the Security Council to play its rightful role in averting any threats to peace and security as well as bringing an immediate end to the suffering of the Kashmiri people under occupation.”
