RAWALPINDI: Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor reiterating unflinching support to the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir on Wednesday said wars were fought by nations to retain dignity and honour, but not money.
“Pakistan can go to any limit to support the Kashmiris for their just right to self-determination,” which had been attaining global recognition, he said while addressing a press conference here at the ISPR.
Wars were not fought only with weapons but skills, tactics and above all the initiative, drive and determination to sacrifice, and the armed forces of Pakistan possessed all the required abilities for warring.
When his attention was drawn towards a recent press statement of the Indian defence minister on India's 'no first use' doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons, Major General Asif Ghafoor said it was India’s unilateral initiative.
Pakistan had never been into such commitment or made any statement on it, rather Pakistan had kept its options open, he added.
“Kashmir is our jugular vein and we can go to any limit for the right to self-determination of people in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, whatever the cost may be,” he said.
The country's armed forces were fully ready to respond befittingly in case war was imposed from across, he added.
“Our economy is not too weak to fight a war. To extend help to our Kashmiri brethren we will not look at our pockets,” he said in an unwavering tone.
Asif Ghafoor brushed aside rumors about striking any deal on Kashmir during the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa to the United States.
He termed such reports as part of the ongoing hybrid warfare and said, “Such reports carry no weight. No deal was struck on Kashmir during the United States visit.”
There is no question of striking any deal on Kashmir issue,” he categorically stated answering a question.
How come an individual, or any group, or party could strike a deal on 72 years old issue unilaterally, he asked.
It is the matter of prestige and respect of the state that had been standing solemnly on the Kashmir issue, he added.
He said all the endeavors of Pakistan were meant for right to self-determination of Kashmiri people, who had been braving the worst atrocities at the hands of Indian occupation forces.
“Our message for them is that we stand with them in their struggle for freedom from Indian yoke.”
He said any understanding on Kashmir, against the will of people would be a betrayal to Kashmir cause.
“We shall support Kashmiris' just struggle for right to self-determination till our last soldier, last bullet and last breath.”
Asif Ghafoor said Indian subjugation in Indian Occupied Kashmir reflected the picture of Hitler’s Nazism.
“Narendra Modi and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) are followers of Hitler’s philosophy and Kashmiris' subjugation to inhumane atrocities reflect this very mindset.”
He said, “India will suffer twice of that extent to which the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir had been suffering.”
He said India was sowing the seeds of conflict that may threaten the regional peace.
“If India resorts to any aggression, our forces are fully prepared to retaliate.”
He said Pakistan had been target of Indian conspiracies since its inception in 1947, in terms of intelligence and economic warfare, but never bowed to her expansionist agenda.
"The Pakistani nation, the government and the armed forces stand united for the defence of the country and support to Kashmiri brethren."
He told a questioner that the country’s armed forces had already undertaken laborious and hectic exercises for preparing itself for replying to any aggression, but its details cannot be shared with public, or media.
In reply to a question regarding the country’s economy, he said indications towards its deteriorated health were given much earlier in the past, but those then at the helm of affairs had rejected it.
It had attained alarming proportions at that time but went unheeded that caused its further degradation, he said and added, it had suffered cancer which cannot be cured by administering a pill to cure fever.
It required a lengthy and thorough procedure for treatment which was specifically required to cure a lethal disease of cancer, he said.
However, he expressed the hope that things had started improving and would continue in the days to come.
Answering a question regarding the episode of Osama Bin Laden, he said Pakistan had shared the first information about him with the United States, which later carried out operation in isolation.
Expressing the strong desire for restoration of complete peace in Afghanistan, he said Pakistan had already been making sincere efforts to bring both the United States and Taliban on the table and would continue efforts to facilitate peace efforts.
The factions in Afghanistan are learnt to have reached near striking a peace deal, he added.
In connection with the Pakistan Defence Day celebrations, he appealed to the nation to visit the places belonging to the martyrs and exchange sympathies with their kins and loved ones to remind them that the entire nation was with them, to acknowledge the sacrifices of their near and dear ones.
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