India escalating situation along LoC: DG ISPR

In an interview to Chinese news agency Xinhua, Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt. General Asim Bajwa emphasized the importance of resolving the current tension with India through dialogue.

In the interview, DG ISPR said all channels of communication including the hotline between the two militaries were open, adding that the UN Military Observer Group in Pakistan and Indian also monitor the situation.

According to Lt. General Bajwa, the armies of Pakistan and India were in contact, as he confirmed that DGMOs of both countries had spoken over the phone after India had violated the Line of Control (LoC) ceasefire.

The DG ISPR said it was India which had violated the 2003 LoC ceasefire agreement and then made a false claim of conducting surgical strikes.  Lt. General Bajwa added that since September 29, Indian forces had fired into Pakistani side on a daily basis. He further said that on Wednesday, Indian fire was at a maximum with over 25,000 rounds being fired with small arms.

"What we see is that there is more intensified firing along the LoC, and of course, when there is more fire, the situation does escalate. The environment also escalates when there is more rhetoric and more statement and more pronouncements" by the Indian side, Bajwa was quoted by the news agency.

Lt. General Bajwa stressed that Pakistan wanted peaceful relations with all its neighbours. He added that this policy was followed by every element of power in the country.

No more terrorist hideouts in Pakistan

The DG ISPR also spoke of Pakistan being completely cleared of any physical hideouts of terrorists.

“I can confirm that there is presently no physical hideout of the terrorists on the Pakistani soil," said DG ISPR Lt Gen Asim Bajwa, adding that areas in North Waziristan including the mountainous Shawal Valley near the Afghan border and Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency had been cleared.

Pakistan military launched a major offensive codenamed ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ against the Pakistani Taliban and other armed groups in the North Waziristan tribal region, a former stronghold of the militants, in June 2014 after peace talks with the Taliban failed.

Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said 3,500 terrorists have been killed and 992 terrorist hideouts have been destroyed in the military operation. 546 Pakistani soldiers were martyred and 2,285 injured in the offensive.

The security forces are now carrying out intelligence-based operations (IBOs) and combing operations in urban areas to destroy the network of terrorists, their sympathizers, facilitators and financiers, the general said.

Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said that around 22,000 IBOs have been conducted so far by the intelligence agencies along with civilian law enforcement agencies, including the police. He said that hundreds of suspects have also been arrested during these targeted operations.

To a question about terrorists’ trials in special military courts, the DG ISPR said a total of 166 cases have been finalized by the courts, 107 have been given death sentences and 12 convicts have been executed after the completion of the legal process.

The special military courts were established after the Taliban attacked an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014 and killed 140 students and teachers in the notorious terrorist attack.