India helping terrorists by creating tension: ISPR chief

By Mobarik Virk

ISLAMABAD: Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Rashid Qureshi on Tuesday said that by creating tension with Pakistan, India was indirectly helping international terrorists.

“Pakistan is compelled to move its forces from the western border with Afghanistan to the eastern border in the face of increasing tension with India,” General Qureshi said in an interview with Daily Times.

“It is not Pakistan which is increasing tension in the region; it is India. Pakistan was trying to assist and is still trying to assist the international coalition in its war against terrorism. Pakistan itself is a victim of sectarian and international terrorism and we are trying our best to combat this,” the ISPR chief, who is also press secretary to the president, said.

He added that the Indians had deployed 1.2 million of their army on the border and the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, which had created a situation where Pakistan started moving its troops from the western border to the eastern border as a defensive measure against possible Indian aggression.

To a question regarding the latest series of missile tests by Pakistan, while the Russian deputy foreign minister and the British foreign secretary were present in the federal capital brokering peace, General Qureshi said nobody should be shocked by these tests.

“We have certain missiles and weapons systems that need to be upgraded all the time. That is no threat to anyone, if India does not attack Pakistan. We still want peace. But, if India attacks Pakistan, or strikes anywhere on the LoC or on the international border, Pakistan will defend itself with all its might. Nobody should try to impose war on us. The world should not deny Pakistan the right to self-defence,” General Qureshi said. He said Pakistan has been urging the United Nations to deploy its observers along the LoC, to monitor the Indian allegations of infiltration from the Pakistan side, but the Indians had rejected the idea. About the peace initiative offered by Russian President Putin, the ISPR chief said that Pakistan welcomed the move, but India did not.

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