DG ISPR breaks silence over reports of military’s deal with former PM Nawaz Sharif
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RAWALPINDI – Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar addressed the first press conference of the year 2022.
Addressing a media briefing in Rawalpindi, Gen. Iftikhar trashed the reports of a deal with the ousted prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, and said such reports are "baseless speculations".
There is no truth in these reports, whoever speaks on the matter please ask from where they are getting such reports,” he answered to a correspondent of a private news channel. He also mentioned the relationship between the civil-military leadership is quite stable.
Speaking about the Pak-Afghan border fencing issue, Major General Babar Iftikhar said Pakistani forces will continue unilateral fencing nearly a 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan.
He said removing fencing from the Afghan side of the border was an act of some local elements. We are in contact with the current Afghan interim government. Fencing on the Pak-Afghan border still continue as per the strategy, he said.
The border fence was erected after completing security operations in the erstwhile tribal areas and around 94 percent work on the border fence with Afghanistan has been completed while the work to fence the border with Iran had been completed 71 percent.
He added that the border fence will be completed and stay in place. “The is a fence for peace,” the spokesman said. ‘India moving towards path of religious extremism’
Speaking about India, he termed Indian claims about infiltration through the Line of Control (LOC) ridiculous and called out the Indian Army for targeting innocent Kashmiri civilians.
He said the LOC remained calm throughout the year in 2021, but the Indian Army staged fake encounters. “Indian allegations hint at a political agenda,” the army spokesman said.
Both sides had agreed to a ceasefire in 2003 and after it came into force in February 2021, the peace returned to the border, he said while adding that the development has brought improvement in the lives of the people living on both sides of the border.
Commenting on threats from the Modi-led government, he said that it depicts particular political thinking which has dragged India towards the path of religious extremism. Indian government measures under the incumbent government will have a negative impact on the region, he warned.
India has turned Kashmir into a place of worst humanitarian crisis as the occupied territory has been under siege since August 2019. Gen Iftikhar also recalled the international community regarding its promise being made from the people of Kashmir regarding their right to self-determination on January 05, 1949.
The presser of Pakistan Army spokesperson comes as Kashmiris and the world observes the Right to Self-Determination Day of Indian Occupied Kashmir.
India has killed innocent people as it attempted to externalize the indigenous freedom struggle of the Kashmiris", he said. DG ISPR also accused India of putting the region's peace at stake through its defense procurement saying It will have negative effects on peace. On the Line of Control, they have committed false propaganda about infiltration.
