ISLAMABAD (APP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that India had committed a grave mistake last night by resorting to aggression and thought that Pakistan would back off, but India would have to face the consequences of its actions.
“Pakistan had resolved that each drop of blood would be accounted for,” the prime minister said in a televised address to the nation.
The premier said, “India forgets that the Pakistani nation had brave sons who always fought for the respect and defence of the motherland by shedding the last drop of their blood.”
He said the entire world witnessed that within a few hours, their enemy, though large in numbers, was bowed down after Pakistan Air Force eagles shot down five Indian combat jets and reduced them to a pile of fragments and ashes, which was once considered their pride.
“It (response) has the thunderous sound of squadron leader MM Alam that struck the enemy strongly,” he observed.
The prime minister said India’s cowardly attack took the lives of 26 innocent people while injuring 46 others, including women and children.
He referred to the funeral prayer of Shaheed Irtaza Abbas, 7 years old, who lost his life after being hit with a splinter in his home where he was present with his mother and a brother.
“A tender flower withered away and attained shahadat,” he said, adding that the nation paid tribute to shaheeds and their families and prayed for the recovery of the injured.
“The timid enemy is attacking innocent people. Pakistan has proved how to respond with a solid blow,” he added.
The prime minister said that in a one-hour fight on the Line of Control, PAF pilots, while flying inside territory and with display of bravery and professionalism, reduced the enemy’s jets to ashes. In conventional warfare, Pakistan also proved its superiority over its enemy.
He said that he, along with the entire 240 million people of the country, saluted Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Babar Sidhu, Naval Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf, and every officer and soldier of Pakistan.
The prime minister regretted that accusations against Pakistan with regard to the Pahalgam attack were unreasonable.
As a peaceful country, he said, Pakistan had offered an international, transparent, and credible probe, which was acknowledged by the world, but India obliterated all the international laws and norms by resorting to aggression.
Under international laws and the UNSC resolutions, Jammu and Kashmir has been and will remain a globally recognized dispute until Kashmiris exercise their right to self-determination in a free and impartial environment in accordance with the UN resolutions.
“India can take a hundred decisions, but it cannot change the reality,” he emphasised.
In this region, he said, Pakistan had been the most affected country from the scourge of terrorism, and in this fight, a total of 90,000 people had lost their lives with damages to the tune of $152 million.
He said that it was a vain thinking on the part of India that her aggression would divert the attention of Pakistan from fighting terrorism, but it was committed to ending it forever.
For the protection of Pakistan’s sovereignty and solidarity, the prime minister said, the armed forces and people were standing in unity. The nation fully backed its valiant armed forces and would face and defeat the enemy together, he added.
