LoC surgical strikes leave Pak gasping

India has “all legal and globally accepted right” to respond to any attack on her sovereignty and territory, Bangladesh said on Thursday after the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes against terror bases across the the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday night, inflicting “significant casualties” on terrorists and those who are trying to support them. However, Dhaka has called for “restraint” from all sides.

“India has got all legal, internationally accepted right to make a response to any attack on her sovereignty and her soil,” Iqbal Chowdhury, Advisor to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said.

On the Kashmir issue, he said it is a “bilateral dispute” and there has been a “violation from the other side”. 

“It (Kashmir issue) has been a long, continued dispute and there has been a...violation from the other side and Bangladesh always believes that any aggression or attack on the sovereignty of the independence and legal right of a country is not acceptable and Bangladesh always feels that any country must honour and respect the sovereignty of a third country,” he said.

Chowdhury said after Hasina came to power, she had asserted that Bangladeshi soil will not be allowed to house any terrorist group and to plan or organise any attack or activity on the Indian side, and has been “very committed on this point that (there is) zero tolerance to any (such) type of activity.”

He, however, appealed for “restraint” from all sides for a peaceful neighbourhood.

“Bangladesh always feels that in these type of things, there should be restraint from all sides because we believe that in the SAARC countries, we need to live in a peaceful environment, honouring the sovereign rights of each member country,” he added.

Even as the international community stresses that the neighbours should resolve all issues, including the raging Kashmir dispute, through talks, Pakistan asserted that the “armed forces have given and will continue to give a befitting response to any aggression”.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday reviewed Pakistan’s defence preparedness and held talks with army chief Raheel Sharif and other top aides, after India carried out surgical strikes against terror bases across the LoC.

Raheel apprised PM Sharif over the firing incidents at the LoC, the sources said, adding that the army chief told him that Indian claims of surgical strikes were “baseless”.

Sharif told the army chief that the entire nation had high morale and was committed to defend the motherland along with the armed forces.

The Prime Minister was also briefed on the LoC situation by National Security Advisor (NSA) General Nasir Janjua, after the Indian Army carried out 5-6 surgical strikes against terror bases across the LoC. 

The NSA has submitted a comprehensive report on the LoC situation to Sharif, Radio Pakistan reported.  It added that the Prime Minister is also being briefed regularly on the situation along the LOC by security institutions. Sharif has shown satisfaction on the level of preparedness of Pakistani armed forces to match any “provocation” by Indian security forces, the report said.

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has dismissed as “fabrication of truth” India’s claim that it conducted a military operation across the LoC, terming it as a “quest” by India to create media hype by rebranding cross-border fire as surgical strike.

“There has been no surgical strike by India, instead there had been cross-border fire initiated and conducted by India, which is existential phenomenon,” it said. Pakistan has strongly condemned ceasefire violations on the LoC by India, calling it “unprovoked”. 

“Pakistan also rejects the baseless claim that Indian armed forces carried out surgical strikes into Pakistan. The Indian side has chosen to share this falsified claim with the Indian media,” it said, adding that the alleged ceasefire violations were “continuation of a pattern of unprovoked violations committed by Indian forces,” the Pakistani Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.