“Make no mistake,” Prime Minister Imran Khan told India on Sunday amid reports that Pakistan’s nuclear neighbour could carry out a “false flag operation” against Pakistan in the coming days to divert Indian people and the world community’s attention from its internal chaos.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Friday that Pakistan had “credible information” about the Indian plans to carry out a surgical strike on Pakistan just to divert attention from India’s internal problems. He said that India was trying to secure a “tacit approval” of its “partners” for this move.
Speaking at a press conference in Abu Dhabi at the end of his two-day visit to the UAE and meetings with top leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qureshi said that Indian plans to conduct a surgical strike on Pakistan were “picked up by intelligence”.
Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted on Sunday, “I am making absolutely clear to the int community that if India was to be reckless enough to conduct a false flag operation against Pakistan, it would confront a strong national Pakistani resolve & be given a befitting response at all levels of the threat. Make no mistake.”
I am making absolutely clear to the int community that if India was to be reckless enough to conduct a false flag operation against Pakistan, it would confront a strong national Pakistani resolve & be given a befitting response at all levels of the threat. Make no mistake.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 20, 2020
He wrote, “Already, in 2020 alone, there have been 3000 Indian ceasefire violations along the LoC & Working Boundary, by unprovoked firing deliberately targeting civilians – resulting in 276 casualties, of which 92 were women & 68 children.”
He concluded, “In complete violation of int law, India’s delib firing at LoC on UNMOGIP vehicle, despite clear UN markings & flying blue UN flag, shows India’s total disregard for all int norms of acceptable state behaviour & respect for int law & UN. Pak strongly condemns this rogue behaviour.”
Relations between nuclear rivals Pakistan and India have deteriorated further after rise of the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in New Delhi. BJP is considered a subsidiary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu fundamental group preaching hatred against minorities, especially Muslims, in India.
Incumbent Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been a member of the RSS until 1985 and then the RSS assigned him to the BJP. Modi is currently working on the same agenda as RSS’s vis-à-vis Pakistan and the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The Modi-led Indian government sanctioned a midnight surgical strike on Pakistan on February 26, 2019. However, the Indian war planes had to drop the payload and run back without hitting the targets when Pakistani war planes confronted them. Pakistan promised a befitting response to the Indian misadventure and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) carried out airstrikes on several strategically important Indian installations in the broad daylight the very next day, February 27, 2019.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) tried to counter the Pakistani air raid and the Pakistani fighter pilots destroyed two Indian war planes in the process. One of the pilots of these Indian war planes, Abhinandan Varthaman, landed in Pakistan after destruction of his plane and was captured by the Pakistani forces. Pakistan later released the captured pilot as a goodwill gesture.