Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit has claimed that Islamabad would have ‘immediately retaliated’ if Indian Army had conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) a fortnight ago targeting terror launch pads.
In an interview to a private news channel here on Wednesday, Basit termed the operation as ‘fictional’ and maintained his country’s stand that there was no surgical strike across the LoC.
Asked what message Pakistan has got from the strikes, he said since there was no strike, there is no question of Pakistan getting any message.
“There was no surgical strike. Had there been any surgical strike, Pakistan would have retaliated,” he said.
“There was only cross-border firing,” he added.
To the point that many prominent Pakistan media organisations have written about the surgical strikes, Basit said that he can't comment on media reports.
He also rubbished the question that a Pakistani Police officer talked about the strikes on televising, saying he did not say what was being claimed.
“Your entire discourse is based on media reports. My stand is there was no surgical strike,” he reiterated.
On being asked if he would accept that Pakistan was isolated internationally after Uri terror attack, he said that Pakistan has suffered more from terrorism than any other country.
“We don't need any lecture from anybody on it,” he said.
About SAARC summit, which was to take place in Pakistan next month, he said it being postponed was a loss for every country concerned.
“We are confident that Pakistan will host it next year. It is not the first time SAARC summit has got postponed. Pakistan would like to implement our Prime Minister's vision of peace for development,” he said.
To the question on political asylum by India to Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bughti, the Pakistani Envoy said, “A handful of individual don't represent Balochistan.”
He added that he questioned the idea of destabilising Pakistan and ‘if that happens we will see how this pans out’.
On the investigation into the Pathankot attack and trial of the accused on the Mumbai attack, Basit said that trials do take time.
Pakistan is committed but without India's cooperation it can't go ahead, he said, noting that last year, Pakistan asked for some information on Mumbai attack but India has not responded yet.
