Pakistan will respond to any aggression in self-defence: Army chief

Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday said his country would respond in self-defence to any act of "unprovoked aggression" by the Indian military.

According to the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Army chief made the remarks in his telephonic communication with the commanders of the US Central Command, UK Chief of Defence Staff and the Australian Chief of Defence Force as well as the ambassadors of the US, UK and China in Pakistan.

"Pakistan shall surely respond to any aggression in self-defence," Gen. Bajwa was quoted as telling the military chiefs and envoys by Major General Asif Ghafoor, the head of the military's media wing ISPR, on Twitter.

During the phone calls, Gen. Bajwa and the defence chiefs and ambassadors discussed the prevailing stand-off between Pakistan and India and its impact on the "peace (and) stability in the region (and) beyond", according to the Ghafoor's tweet.

Tensions spiked between two countries after the Pakistan-based JeM claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 40 CRPF troopers in Jammu and Kasmir's Pulwama on February 14.

India, in retaliation, bombed the JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday claimed to have killed a large number of terrorists.

This was followed by Pakistan seizing Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman after his MiG-21 Bison fighter jet was shot down during a dogfight near the Line of Control (LoC) on Wednesday.

--IANS

soni/prs