ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani foreign office said on Thursday Islamabad was aware of the threat of a ‘false flag’ operation from India, and the Pakistani military was ready to deal with any “misadventure.”
A false flag operation is a covert operation committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on a second party. Pakistan and India, long at loggerheads over the disputed Kashmir region they both rule in part but claim in full, have routinely accused each other of planning and carrying out such campaigns. They have also fought at least two wars over Kashmir and their troops regularly exchange fire across the mountainous border.
“Pakistan has been consistently sensitizing the international community regarding the possibility of India resorting to a false flag operation,” foreign office spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhari told reporters during a weekly briefing in Islamabad.
"Our armed forces are vigilant and ready to respond to any misadventure or miscalculation by India," he said, adding that New Delhi had a "history of using the Pakistan card to score political points and to shift focus from its profound failures of governance, faltering economy, state sponsorship of terrorism and violation of minority rights."
According to the foreign office, Indian forces had increased ceasefire violations on the Line of Control, or de facto border, and were targeting civilian areas with artillery fire, heavy-caliber mortars and automatic weapons. This year alone, Pakistan has recorded 2,840 ceasefire violations by India that have killed 27 people and injured 245 others. India claims a similar number of fatalities and injuries.
Last month, Pakistan gave United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a dossier accusing India of stoking “terrorism” in Pakistan, a day after India provided a dossier to some UN Security Council members accusing militants from Pakistan of attempting an attack in disputed Kashmir. Both countries deny the accusations.
