*RAWALPINDI: Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) MajorGeneral Asif Ghafoor has said, t*here is presence of troops at the Line ofControl (LoC) for decades. But post the Indian aggression and our responsethe safeguards have been taken by both sides,” DG ISPR said, adding thatthe military presence along the frontier had been scaled up as “it isnatural as part of military planning when the station gets hot there aresafeguards.
Those safeguards are in place on both sides.”
*He said that it is up to India to reciprocate Pakistan’s peace gestures orescalate tensions between the two nuclear powers.*
“We feel that now the ball is in the Indian court. Should they decide toescalate, the situation will go bad,” he said in an interview with CNN.
DG ISPR said the two neighbouring countries were close to war after theingress by Indian warplanes into Pakistan.
“It is up to India whether they take that peace gesture and move forwardtoward de-escalation or continue the agenda that they have,” he said whileresponding to a question with regard to the release of captured Indianpilot Abhinandan Varthaman as a peace gesture.
Gen Ghafoor said not even a single brick had been found at the place whereIndian warplane dropped their payload before being chased away by thePakistan Air Force, let alone causalities.
“Their [Indian] claims are false and I believe lately there is anannouncement on their side also that they cannot claim any casualty.”