NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s political leadership on Monday sought to project the Kashmir issue as the main cause of tensions with India as it played down the Indian Army’s surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads across the LoC as a “ludicrous” claim.
Leaders of political parties, during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad, rejected New Delhi’s assertion that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and said they would stand united with the government “in the face of external aggression”.
The stance adopted by the political leadership was similar to the one that emerged when Sharif chaired a meeting of his cabinet a day after the surgical strikes on Thursday.
The statement issued after the meeting focussed mainly on Kashmir and referred to what it described as India’s “interference in Balochistan ” and use of “water as a weapon ” against the people of Pakistan.
The statement said the leaders had rejected “ludicrous Indian claims of carrying out ‘surgical strike’ across the LoC as blatantly false and brazen attempts at diverting international attention away” from the situation in Kashmir. The leaders asked Sharif to strengthen national unity to deal with external threats.
The political leaders said Pakistan’s people, political parties and armed forces were “firmly united in supporting the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination”. They repeated Pakistan’s allegations of rights abuses in Kashmir following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani and condemned “unprovoked Indian aggression and repeated ceasefire violations”.
The leaders rejected “Indian efforts to shift the focus from its brutal atrocities” to “false claims of terrorism across the LoC”. They also rejected India’s “ridiculous claims that Kashmir is an integral part of India”, saying the issue is a “dispute between two sovereign UN members”.
They accused India of “interference in Balochistan” and claimed the capture of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav had substantiated “attempts to destabilise” the province.
The leaders also condemned what they described as India’s “intent…to use water as a weapon against the people…of Pakistan” and said any attempt at unilateral revocation of Indus Waters Treaty would “be taken as an act of aggression”.
They further accused India of scuttling “all diplomatic efforts for bilateral and multilateral dialogue, including the refusal to engage constructively at the SAARC forum”.
The meeting, held hours after militants attacked an army camp at Baramulla and an exchange of fire on the LoC, was attended by leaders of most of Pakistan’s political parties.
Some key leaders who attended the meet were Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Fazalur Rehman of the JUI-F, Mehmood Khan Achakzai of PKMAP, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the ANP, Farooq Sattar of the MQM, Shah Mahmood Qureshi of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Siraj-ul-Haq of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Indian Hackers Ready To Launch E-Surgical Strikes On Pakistan
New Delhi: As reported by the Indian authorities, a team of cyber security personnel have succeeded in gaining access to critical Pakistani government websites and digital infrastructure. The team is waiting for any possible strike command from the Indian government.
Speaking at the National Cyber Defense Summit, the Additional – Director General of the National Cyber Safety and Security Standards, Mr. S Amar Prasad Reddy, informed that a team of hackers from India has successfully penetrated the online infrastructure of Pakistan including the defense systems of the country and some gov.pk websites.
He said in a quote to the Hindu that the cyber agency in India is ready and waiting for a go-ahead command from the government. The agency is prepared to destroy Pakistan’s online infrastructure Mr. Reddy further informed that the anticipatory action was planned and started shortly after the Pakistan sponsored terrorist attack at Pathankot on January 2.
The officer very confidently claimed that the team involved in hacking Pakistani defense system and government sites is fully prepared to destroy the cyber assets and the digital network of Pakistan.
When asked about the safety and security of Indian cyber infrastructure and crucial cyber assets of Indian government, the officer told that teams of cyber experts have been deployed to take care and guard our own sites.
He said that advance systems have been placed to safeguard most crucial cyber assets of the nation.
India’s NGT website hacked
The National Green Tribunal’s website on Monday came under cyber attack with a grouping hacking it and posting profanities, claiming it was an act of “revenge” against Indian army’s surgical strikes across the Line of Control.
“We are Unbeatable. You…kill innocent people in Kashmir and call your self defenders of your country. You…violate the ceasefire on border and call it ‘Surgical Strikes’ Now kiss the burn of Cyber War,” the hackers said in the post replete with expletives.
The cyber attack was noticed around 7:15 p.m. on Monday.
When contacted, the office of NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said that he was not available for comments.
Seven terror launch pads were targeted across the LoC by special forces of the Indian army during the ‘surgical strike’ on September 29.
This is the second time after 2013 that the website has been hacked.
In April, 2012, the Delhi High Court Bar Association’s website was defaced by Pakistani hackers.
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