Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor has said Pakistan Army, with the support of the nation, will respond with full force to any aggression by India
Rawalpindi (Pakistan Point News / Online - 29th April, 2019) Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor has said Pakistan Army, with the support of the nation, will respond with full force to any aggression by India."Do not test our resolve," he said while addressing India, stressing that the Pakistan Army will fully defend its 207 million people if and when required. Addressing a news conference in Rawalpindi on Monday, he said nuclear power is a weapon of deterrence; however, if aggression is carried out, Pakistan has the right to use any weapon in its defence.
He said that India has been speaking lies one after the other after the Pulwama incident, and all of them have been exposed. He said instead of reacting to Indian lies Pakistan behaved responsibly and presented facts, proving false Indian claims about the Indian airstrike in Balakot on February 26 and the subsequent developments.He said Pakistan shot down two Indian aircraft on February 27, responding to Indian airstrike. He said India should keep it view while planning any aggression against Pakistan.
He said Kashmir issue is linked with the ideology of Pakistan and every Pakistani is perturbed over Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir. The DG ISPR said it is moral responsibility of Pakistan to continue supporting Kashmiris' struggle to achieve their birth right to self-determination.He stated that Pakistan Army wanted to make every effort to resolve the issues faced by Pashtuns in tribals areas, but that the manner adopted by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) to voice such grievances would no longer be tolerated.
"We want to do everything for the people of tribal areas, but those who are playing in the hands of people, their time is up. Their time is up," Maj Gen Ghafoor said."But the instructions of the army chief will be fully followed. People will not face any sort of problem and neither will any unlawful path be adopted," he said, suggesting possible action the PTM. "Everything will be done lawfully."The ISPR chief individually responded to the demands made by the PTM at its rallies and meetings.
"When we took action against the TLP (Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan), people said that why is action not taken against PTM as they speak up too much as well."The first person to engage with them PTM was me. "I met with Mohsin Dawar, and they had three demands: They said that mines and unexploded bombs still exist in tribal areas. Their demand was genuine, we created 48 teams and 45 per cent of these areas were cleared. As many as 101 casualties of the Pakistan Army also occurred in those areas while clearing them of those mines.
We let those casualties happen as they happened in the line of duty."Their PTM's next demand was about clearing away checkposts. Pak Army has lost thousands of soldiers at these checkposts. "The issue of missing persons were their third demand and they created a list of those missing persons. The list has shortened to 2,500 cases today and the missing persons commission is working day and night to resolve those cases."On the PTM website, they have got a number that states the amount of funds they have collected from Pashtuns around the world.
But tell us how much money did you get from the NDS to run your campaign? How much money did RAW give you for the first dharna in Islamabad?. "Those people who are playing with the people whose issues they have brought forward, I would like to tell them that their time is up. Their time is up.He appreciated the role played by the Pakistani media during the war against terror in the past two years, and during the three-day conflict with India in February.
"The media played the best possible role in the situation and I would like to thank you for it," he told the journalists present. "Pakistan has a regional importance. We are neighbours with Afghanistan, which has been plagued with war for the last 40 years, first with the Soviet occupation and then with the US army after 9/11. "Cooperation with Afghanistan has been going throughout this time. This can be seen through the fact that at least 81,000 Pakistani soldiers have lost their lives in these operations to date.
"I can now say with confidence that there is no terrorist organisation in Pakistan anymore. We have proscribed violent extremist organisations and we have been working to curb terrorism in Pakistan."Today, madressahs offer eight years of studies in a Dars-i-Nizami. Then two more years to give them the title of Mufti. But when these children come out of these madressahs, what job opportunities await them? "Some of these madressahs do offer some contemporary education and thus very few of these children qualify for some basic level jobs, like procuring a commission in the army.
"But 32.5m children do not have these opportunities. That is why we are trying to mainstream madressahs so that children studying there have the opportunity to become doctors and engineers just like the children studying in mainstream schools. We will provide these funds so that these madressahs are mainstreamed and all of our children have equal opportunities. The military spokesperson added that to bring the madrassas into the mainstream, they will have to start teaching other subjects so that students have skills other than religious studies."All madrassas will be brought under the Ministry of Education so that contemporary subjects can be taught. We will formulate a syllabus which will not have hate speech and the students will be taught respect for different sects." "The students will also receive a degree which will be associated with the education board.
