Imran Khan tells India to give proof on Pulwama attack, warns that Pakistan will 'surely retaliate' if attacked

Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan in a televised address on Tuesday warned that his country will not think twice before retaliating in the face of any military action by India. Reacting for the first time after the Pulwama terror attack on 14 February, Khan said that if India has any proof of a Pakistani national’s involvement, it should hand Pakistan the evidence of the same adding that his country will take action on it. Imran said that he hopes “better sense will prevail” in the Indian side as he believes that only dialogue and talks are the solutions to the Kashmir issue which is the bone of contention between the two countries.

Imran said that he was waiting for the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman to leave from Pakistan to say anything on this matter as it was “stupid to think on anyone’s part” that Pakistan would try to “sabotage such an important conference”. He said that even otherwise, Pakistan has nothing to gain from such an activity.“How will Pakistan benefit from this?” he asked. “If India has any actionable intelligence, give it to us we will act on it,” Imran reiterated his stance. He also said that Pakistan is ready to talk on terror, which he said is a global issue.   [caption id=“attachment_5247491” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan. AP[/caption] However, Imran warned that India should not become a nation that practices the ‘judge, jury and execution’ approach while dealing with its neighbour. “No country can be the “judge, jury and execution”, Imran said. He slammed India’s “one-dimensional approach and torture in Kashmir” which he said is not the solution to the problem in the region. Military oppression has never been the answer as seen in the case of Afghanistan, Imran said. Imran said that Pakistan has been inflicted with terror for 15 years and has lost 70,000 troops to it and thus believes that no one from its soil should attack anyone else and vice versa. Imran concluded by saying that he knows that elections are due in India and this approach may give the country “a boost in election year” but blaming Pakistan would achieve nothing, he said. The suicide attack by a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama caused the death of 40 personnel and left several injured. In the aftermath of the attack, India had registered a strong protest with Pakistan and demanded the neighbouring nation stops supporting terrorists and terror groups operating from its territory and dismantle the infrastructure operated by terrorist outfits to launch attacks in other countries. Condemning the attack, India said that Pakistan-supported JeM was behind the “ heinous and despicable act ”. It urged the international community to support the proposal to list terrorists, including JeM chief Masood Azhar, as a designated terrorist under the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council and to ban terrorist groups operating from Pakistan. [caption id=“attachment_6114171” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Cartoon by Manjul.[/caption] On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the sacrifice of the jawans “would not go in vain” and that the “neighbouring country” should remember that this is a “new India”. However, the Pakistan foreign secretary rejected the allegations and said that it would not accept accusations without “due investigation”. India has slammed its neighbour for stating that it had no role in the attack, saying that Islamabad could not claim that it was unaware of the presence of terror groups on its soil as the links of such outfits to the country were “there for everyone to see.”