India snubs Pak, calls spy drone Chinese

Foreign secretary says Pakistan trying to divert topic from violation of ceasefire agreement

Not even a week since PM Narendra Modi and  his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, met in Russia to take the dialogue process forward, the neighbours are once again engaged in a war of words alleging that the other has violated the ceasefire agreement across the Line of Control (LoC).  

MMatters took an ugly turn on Thursday when Pakistan’s foreign office summoned High Commissioner T C A Raghavan to “protest” alleged violation of air space and said it detected an Indian spy drone, according to them it violated international law, Pakistan’s territorial integrity and the two pacts of 1991 on air space violation.

India has categorically denied the charges. "The photograph of the drone in question indicates that it is not of Indian design, nor of any UAV category held in the inventory of the Indian armed forces. It appears to be of Chinese design, and is commercially available off the shelf,” foreign secretary S. Jaishankar said here today.

Pakistan also alleged that India had initiated helicopter maneuvers near the LoC on July 11 calling it “offensive and a threatening posture.”

However, according to the foreign secretary the matter was settled last week itself between both sides when India had conveyed to Pakistan that the helicopter was well within the limits and was engaged in a counter-terrorism operation.

Jaishankar reiterated that India is willing to discuss all these issues once the DGMOs and DG BSF and DG Pakistan Rangers start meeting as has been discussed between both the Prime Ministers.

Over the issue of summoning high commissioner Raghavan, foreign secretary stated that he met Pakistan foreign secretary where they tried to  “shift responsibility for the firing on the Indian side.”

According to the foreign secretary, it was Pakistan that started the firing on July 15 in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

“There should be no doubt that any unprovoked firing from the Pakistani side would meet with an effective and forceful response from our forces. Nor will we let down our guard against infiltration and cross-border terrorism,” Jaishankar said.