RAWALPINDI – Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Maj Gen BabarIftikhar addressed the first press conference of the year 2022.
Addressing a media briefing in Rawalpindi, Gen. Iftikhar trashed thereports of a deal with the ousted prime minister and PML-N supremo NawazSharif, and said such reports are “baseless speculations”.
There is no truth in these reports, whoever speaks on the matter please askfrom where they are getting such reports,” he answered to a correspondentof a private news channel. He also mentioned the relationship between thecivil-military leadership is quite stable.
Speaking about the Pak-Afghan border fencing issue, Major General BabarIftikhar said Pakistani forces will continue unilateral fencing nearly a2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan.
He said removing fencing from the Afghan side of the border was an act ofsome local elements. We are in contact with the current Afghan interimgovernment. Fencing on the Pak-Afghan border still continue as per thestrategy, he said.
The border fence was erected after completing security operations in theerstwhile tribal areas and around 94 percent work on the border fence withAfghanistan has been completed while the work to fence the border with Iranhad been completed 71 percent.
He added that the border fence will be completed and stay in place. “The isa fence for peace,” the spokesman said.‘India moving towards path of religious extremism’
Speaking about India, he termed Indian claims about infiltration throughthe Line of Control (LOC) ridiculous and called out the Indian Army fortargeting innocent Kashmiri civilians.
Read Top Stories
He said the LOC remained calm throughout the year in 2021, but the IndianArmy staged fake encounters. “Indian allegations hint at a politicalagenda,” the army spokesman said.
Both sides had agreed to a ceasefire in 2003 and after it came into forcein February 2021, the peace returned to the border, he said while addingthat the development has brought improvement in the lives of the peopleliving on both sides of the border.
Commenting on threats from the Modi-led government, he said that it depictsparticular political thinking which has dragged India towards the path ofreligious extremism. Indian government measures under the incumbentgovernment will have a negative impact on the region, he warned.
India has turned Kashmir into a place of worst humanitarian crisis as theoccupied territory has been under siege since August 2019. Gen Iftikharalso recalled the international community regarding its promise being madefrom the people of Kashmir regarding their right to self-determination onJanuary 05, 1949.
The presser of Pakistan Army spokesperson comes as Kashmiris and the worldobserves the Right to Self-Determination Day of Indian Occupied Kashmir.
India has killed innocent people as it attempted to externalize theindigenous freedom struggle of the Kashmiris”, he said. DG ISPR alsoaccused India of putting the region’s peace at stake through its defenseprocurement saying It will have negative effects on peace. On the Line ofControl, they have committed false propaganda about infiltration.
