ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan military’s media wing on Sunday criticized Indian army chief General Upendra Dwivedi’s recent warning to Islamabad by describing it as “warmongering,” cautioning that any attempts to target Pakistan can trigger wide-ranging consequences.
The statement follows remarks by Dwivedi this week, who warned Pakistan that if it harbors “terrorists” and continues to operate against India, then Islamabad will have to decide whether it wants to be “part of geography or history.”
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) described Dwivedi’s remarks as reflective of a “hubristic, jingoistic and myopic” mindset, saying it has repeatedly pushed South Asia toward wars and crises.
“Threatening a sovereign nuclear neighbor with elimination from “geography” is not strategic signaling or brinkmanship; it is sheer bankruptcy of cognitive capacities, madness and warmongering despite knowing the reality that such geographic obliteration would certainly be mutual and comprehensive,” the ISPR said.
The Pakistani military said that Dwivedi’s statement also showed that New Delhi has not been able to reconcile with the very idea of Pakistan. The ISPR urged India to reconcile with Pakistan’s existence.
“Otherwise, any attempt to target Pakistan can trigger consequences that shall neither be geographically confined nor strategically or politically palatable for India,” the military warned.
India and Pakistan engaged in the worst fighting between them since 1999 in May last year, when their militaries fought in a brief four-day conflict.
Tensions surged after India blamed Pakistan for supporting a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, on Apr. 22. Pakistan denied the allegations and demanded a fair probe into the incident.
India carried out strikes inside Pakistani territory in the first week of May, saying it had struck “terrorist” camps. Pakistan said it responded by downing six Indian fighter jets.
Fighting escalated between the two countries, who bombed each other with fighter jets, drones and exchanged artillery fire for four days before agreeing to a ceasefire on May 10.
Tensions have remained high since then, as both countries accuse each other of sponsoring militant attacks against one another. The two have fought two out of three wars over the past seven decades over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but administer only parts of the territory.
