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After Indian strike, Pak PM Khan convenes emergency meeting, FM Qureshi says Islamabad has ‘right to give a suitable response’

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has convened an emergency meeting following India’s air strikes in Balakot, Radio Pakistan reported. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi who will brief the media later today, said India has committed “aggression” by violating the LoC and Islamabad has “right to self-defence”.

“First, they committed aggression against Pakistan today. It is a violation of the LoC. I consider it a violation of the LoC, and Pakistan has a right to give a suitable response in self-defence,” Qureshi told reporters after an “emergency meeting” with high-level officials at the Foreign Office (FO) for consultations.

He also added that Pakistan had repeatedly warned the world against India’s reaction.

Asking Pakistan’s to remain calm, Qureshi said, “Nation should not be worried over the Indian act as the defenders of the country are fully prepared to respond to any misadventure.”

He also added that Pakistan is a “peace-loving” nation and has “registered successes in the war on terrorism,” reported Radio Pakistan. He also briefed Khan after the meeting.

Senator Sherry Rehman, a leading opposition leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said that “Indian incursion” across the LOC is strategically “ill-advised and tactically pointless”.

“Such moves only ratchet up tensions in a region bristling with anger. “Obvious that (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s election wardrums make prospects for talks collateral damage. India’s ruling party sees no other way to win the elections hence, itching for war,” Rehman said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Secretary of India has said that they have ‘struck the biggest camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot in the pre-dawn ‘preemptive strikes across the Line of Control’ on Tuesday.

“India struck the biggest camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot and a large number of terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis planning terror strikes were eliminated,” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.

Gokhale added that India’s “non-military preemptive action” was specifically targeted at the Jaish-e-Mohammed camp.

The outfit had claimed the responsibility of the Pulwama suicide bombing of February 14 in which 49 CRPF personnel were killed.

“Credible intelligence was received that Jaish-e-Mohammed was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country and Fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose,” he said.

“India has given proof many times seeking action against Jaish-e-Mohammed and others at terror camps so big, that they can train hundreds of jihadis and terrorists at any given time. But due to Pakistan’s inaction, this step was necessary and had to be taken,” he said.

Earlier, India has said that they carried out a pre-dawn strike on a ‘militant camp’ across the Line of Control soon after Pakistan army said that Indian fighter jets were forced to leave after they crossed the LoC in Muzaffarabad sector.

According to reports, the strike was carried out at around 3:30 this morning by 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets. The aircraft dropped, according to reports, ‘1,000 kg laser-guided bombs on a major militant camp across the Line of Control, completely destroying it’, news agency ANI reported, quoting Air Force sources.

Earlier, Pakistan Army claimed that the Indian military planes “intruded” from the Muzaffarabad sector but were forced to go back after Pakistan Air Force “immediately scrambled”.

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