NEW DELHI: India is now capable of making Pakistan “bite the dust” in lessthan 10 days in any new war with its arch-rival, Prime Minister NarendraModi said.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars and last February cameclose to a fourth with tit-for-tat airstrikes sparked by an attack onIndian troops in Kashmir.
Modi is under pressure after weeks of ongoing protests against a newcitizenship law, a slowing economy and the prospect of losing the latest ina string of state elections in New Delhi next month.
“Pakistan has already lost three wars. Our armed forces will not take morethan 7-10 days to make Pakistan bite the dust,” Modi said in a speech tomilitary personnel on Tuesday.
His comments follow last year’s incident when an Indian fighter jet wasshot down – and the pilot captured – by Islamabad after a rare aerialengagement.
Wearing a maroon National Cadet Corps baseball cap at the event in thecapital, Modi said India’s new prowess was thanks to what he called“youthful thinking.”
He said that Indian strikes against what New Delhi said were militants inPakistan-administered Kashmir and inside Pakistan proper in 2016 and lastyear were evidence of this.
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“This is ‘youthful thinking’. We carry out surgical strikes and take onterrorists in their homes,” Modi said.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars: in 1947, 1965 and 1971, as wellas in 1999 during the so-called Kargil Conflict.
Modi said that Pakistan continues to wage a “proxy war” against India bybacking militants in Indian-administered Kashmir where tens of thousands ofpeople have died in recent decades.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since Independence fromBritain in 1947. In August Modi’s government stripped Indian Kashmir of itspartial autonomy.–APP/AFP
