Pakistan: Reserve the right to respond at a time, place, manner of choosing
Pakistan military’s media arm: 26 killed, 46 injured at 6 locations. Govt authorised Pak’s armed forces to “undertake corresponding actions in this regard”
New Delhi: The Pakistan government on Wednesday reserved the right to respond “at a time, place and manner of its choosing” to India’s military strikes on terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Islamabad in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.
Soon after Indian launched Operation Sindoor to target nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) early on Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan has “every right to give a befitting reply to this act of war”. The Pakistani military’s media arm said 26 people were killed and 46 injured at six locations.
After Sharif chaired a meeting of the National Security Committee, which was attended by the three service chiefs, an official statement said: “In consonance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, Pakistan reserves the right to respond, in self-defence, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty.”
The government has authorised Pakistan’s armed forces to “undertake corresponding actions in this regard,” the statement said without giving details.
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“Pakistan reserves the right and will respond to this aggression at a time, place and means of our own choice,” chief military spokesman Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said at a media briefing. He also claimed the strikes targeted Neelam-Jhelum hydropower project and Nauseri Dam.
Sharif also addressed a session of Pakistan’s Parliament and said the armed forces were on high alert round the clock and ready to defend the country. He called on all political leaders to come together to make Pakistan a “united nation”.
The National Security Committee reviewed the “grave developments” arising from India’s strikes and condemned “blatant violations” of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also rejected Indian allegations about the presence of terrorist camps on Pakistani territory and recalled Islamabad’s offer to participate in a “credible, transparent and neutral” investigation into the Pahalgam attack.
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While Pakistan’s leadership claimed Wednesday’s “unprovoked” strikes targeted civilian areas at Sialkot, Shakargarh, Muridke and Bahawalpur in Punjab province and Kotli and Muzaffarabad in PoK, Indian military officials said the strikes were aimed at only terrorist bases while ensuring that civilians were not harmed.
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, who is wanted by India for several terror attacks, issued a statement on the group’s Telegram channel that acknowledged 14 people, including 10 of his relatives, were killed in a strike at Bahawalpur in Punjab province. The statement, issued using a pen name, said Azhar’s elder sister, her husband, his nephew and his wife, his niece, a cousin and his mother were among the dead. Bahawalpur is home to one of the JeM’s largest bases.
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Footage aired by Pakistani TV news channels purportedly showed Pakistan Army officers and a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander attending funeral prayers at Muridke, a town on the outskirts of Lahore where the terror group has a sprawling compound that was used in the past to train terrorists who carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
