Pak’s DG ISPR disparages Indian Army chief’s claim

New Delhi, Feb 4:  Major General Babar Iftikhar, the Director General of the Pakistan military’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), has categorically rejected the Indian Army chief’s claim that the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) was holding because they negotiated from a “position of strength”, and termed it as “misleading”, Geo News reported.

The military spokesperson Friday said it was agreed only due to Pakistan’s concerns for the safety of the people of Kashmir living on both sides of the LoC.

The statement issued from the DG ISPR’s official Twitter account came in response to a comment by India’s top military commander who claimed the credit for maintaining almost a year-long ceasefire along the LOC, the report said.

“Ceasefire with Pakistan continues to hold as we negotiated from a position of strength,” Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane had said on Thursday.

However, the Pakistani military spokesperson rejected the claim and said no side should misconstrue it as their strength or other’s weakness.

The Director-Generals of military operations of India and Pakistan, after reviewing the situation along the LOC and all other sectors, had agreed to reenforce the ceasefire which went into effect from February 25, 2021.

The two DGs of military operations had made hotline contact in the interest of achieving “mutually beneficial and sustainable peace”, a statement by the ISPR had said.