International
Khan, Modi should show true leadership- sit down, shake hands, settle conflict through dialogue’, says Malala Yousafzai
Pakistani activist and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged both Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Pakistani premier Imran Khan to show “true leadership” by shaking hands to settle the tensions between both countries following the Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy which killed 49 personnel.
On Twitter, she wrote: “As a Nobel Laureate, UN Messenger of Peace, a citizen of Pakistan and a student, I am alarmed by the escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan – and concerned for people living on both sides of the border. Everyone aware of the horrors of war would agree that retaliation and revenge is never the right response – once started, it rarely ends. Millions of people are suffering today because of existing wars – we don’t need another. Our world cannot even care for all the people currently in peril.”
#SayNoToWar pic.twitter.com/yNfRIh5jRw
— Malala (@Malala) February 27, 2019
“I ask the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to show true leadership in this difficult time: to sit down, shake hands and settle the current conflict and long-standing issue of Kashmir through dialogue. I ask the international community to support talks between India and Pakistan and to help prevent loss of lives and homes,” Malala added.
She further said the citizens of both countries know that the “true enemies are terrorism, poverty, illiteracy and health crisis – not each other”.
The development occurs after Wednesday saw a terse exchange between India and Pakistan, with the former stating that it had warded intruding Pakistani fighter jets in Kashmir, shooting down an F-16 that fell on the Pakistani-administered side, while an Indian MiG-21 was lost in action, while the latter claiming that it had shot down the plane, which crashed in its territory, and displayed an Indian Air Force pilot it had captured.
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Earlier on Tuesday, the Foreign Secretary of India had 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’.
“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 had said.
Gokhale had added that India’s “non-military preemptive action” was specifically targeted at the Jaish-e-Mohammed camp.
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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 had 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 had 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.
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According to reports, the strike was carried out at around 3:30 Tuesday 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”.
