Pakistan vows to respond ‘at the time and place of its choosing’

TIL Desk/World/Islamabad/ Pakistan on Tuesday strongly rejected India’s claim of targeting terrorist camp in the country and causing heavy casualties even as it vowed to respond “at the time and place of its choosing” and raise the issue at the United Nations and other international forums.

At a hurriedly called special meeting of the National Security Committee hours after India’s air strikes inside Pakistan, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the armed forces and the people of his country to remain prepared for “all eventualities.”

India bombed and destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80-km from the Line of Control, early on Tuesday, killing a “very large number” of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders, officials said in New Delhi.

The air strikes came 12 days after the JeM carried out a suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force soldiers. “The forum (NSC) strongly rejected Indian claim of targeting an alleged terrorist camp near Balakot and the claim of heavy casualties. Once again Indian government has resorted to a self-serving, reckless and fictitious claim,” said a statement issued after the NSC meeting in Islamabad.