‘We did not want to retaliate at the cost of regional peace’, DG ISPR on IAF air incursions

Srinagar

Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor asserted on Wednesday that Pakistan did not want to retaliate at the cost of regional peace, Pakistan media reported.

The press meet comes after Pakistan Air Force struck Indian targets across the Line of Control from within Pakistani airspace. “Pakistan had no option but to respond after India’s air incursion. Pakistan armed forces have the capability, capacity, will and the nation’s support – but we wanted to be responsible,” the report by Tribune Express quoted Ghafoor as saying.

Major General Asif Ghafoor

The army spokesperson said that the armed forces struck a few miles away from the locked targets to avoid collateral damage. “We did not want to retaliate at the cost of regional peace. We do not want escalation.”

“PAF shot down two Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace,” the army spokesperson said in a Tweet on Wednesday. “One of the aircraft fell inside Azad Jammu and Kashmir while other fell inside Indian-occupied Kashmir,” the report quoted Major General Asif Ghafoor as saying.

Ghafoor added that at least one Indian pilot was “arrested by the troops on the ground while two in the area”, the report mentioned.

According to Foreign Office statement, the strike’s “sole purpose” was to “demonstrate our right, will and capability for self-defence”.

“We have no intention of escalation but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm. It was why we undertook the action with a clear warning and in broad daylight,” The Express Tribune reported.

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