No proof from India up to now suggests its own role in Pahalgam attack: Tarar

ISLAMABAD, May 01 (APP):Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Thursday said India has failed to provide a shred of proof of Pakistan’s involvement in Pahalgam incident up to now which suggested its own role in the attack.

“India, after Pahalgam incident, blamed Pakistan without any evidence, but Pakistan has offered a fair and transparent investigation to the matter,” the minister told CNN.

“They kept pointing their fingers (towards Pakistan),” he said, adding New Delhi used such incidents as pretexts to attack Pakistan in the past.

“This is not the first time, they have done this before in the past, exploiting such incidents to their advantage,” he added.

He said the Indian government has so far not been able to pinpoint a single group which was involved.

“They will have to tell the world who was involved. You cannot just say that Pakistan was behind this. Our Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while speaking at the passing out parade at the Military Academy, said that we are open to a fair, just, and impartial investigation, meaning thereby we have the clean hands,” the minister stressed.

“We expressed our desire to conduct an impartial inquiry to prove a point we have nothing to do with this,” he said, adding “now the situation diplomatically is very clear where we are engaged with our friendly nations talking to them and telling them what our perspective is.”

“Let’s see how the situation unfolds in the near future,” he stated.

To a query, he said, “we had very reliable and very authentic intelligence reports at the operational level. Obviously, the operational details cannot be shared, but we have confirmed reports that India will attack Pakistan, and this is not the first time, and let me also share that had I not, at that point in time, shared this information very timely with the world… with the international community.”

"So, you see, when you communicate things, sometimes they act as a deterrence. So, as a responsible state and non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, we had to share information very timely."

"There are three forms of deterrence: one is our capability, which is our very strong military, and we have always defended our motherland and we have always acted in self-defense as we have never been aggressors; second is the resolve, which is the resolve of the nation and the resolve of the people; and third is the communication."

"So, communication plays a big part in averting crises, not only making the international community aware but also our local population aware of what is going on right now,” the minister noted.

“Pakistan has always been desirous of peace, and Pakistan has always wanted peaceful coexistence, but having said that, we have a right to defend ourselves."

“In all this situation, Pakistan is neither the aggressor, nor the provocateur,” the minister said in response to another query.

He noted that Pakistan has not contributed to the escalation and “we have been saying that we have a right for self defense and we will defend ourselves,” he affirmed.

To another query, he said, “the situation is fluctuating and sometimes escalation is high and sometimes it is low; sometimes engagement with the diplomatic community, and this is an ever evolving situation.”

“We keep receiving intelligence reports, and having said that, our armed forces are on alert; our armed forces are ready, and we are conducting exercises, and there is much at the operational level which I cannot share right now.”

To another query about Indian plans of conducting military attack on Pakistan, he reiterated “yes, there could be a possibility, based on the information that we have, and the kind of strategy we have here and the way we are watching developments in India.

Yes, there is a possibility, that is why I said that Pakistan is always well prepared to defend that and our armed forces are ready for self defense.”