MUZAFFARABAD: Warning India against misconstruing Pakistan’s quest for peace as weakness, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday once again declared that Pakistan would not budge from its principled stand on the just right of Kashmiri people.

“Our quest for peace must never be misconstrued as weakness. There will never be a compromise on Kashmir whatever the cost,” vowed the army chief during a visit to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), according to a tweet by Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Military sources told Dawn that the army chief flew to the forward areas along the restive Line of Control (LoC) and met all ranks on different posts.

A video clip shared by the ISPR chief with his tweet showed the COAS walking through a snow-capped mou­ntain, shaking hands with soldiers and addressing them.

“We are capable and fully prepared to thwart any misadventure/aggression [from the enemy] for defence of our motherland,” said the army chief on the occasion, according to the ISPR chief’s tweet.

On his way back to Rawalpindi, the COAS landed in Muzaffarabad and paid a visit to Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahayan Hospital, also referred to as Combined Military Hospital (CMH), in the heart of the city, to inquire about the health of those who were injured by shelling of Indian troops from across the LoC.

While appreciating LoC residents for braving Indian aggression with utmost courage and valour, Gen Bajwa presented bouquets and fruit baskets to the victims and directed the hospital authorities to leave no stone unturned in providing them the best possible treatment.

The army chief’s visit comes amid heightened tensions along the heavily militarised LoC which has been frequently witnessing skirmishes and artillery duels in a serious breach of November 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two sides.

According to civilian and military officials, the Indian army has been constantly taking provocative actions along the LoC and making false claims to divert attention from its internal issues.

On Saturday, Indian troops shelled Bugna and its adjacent hamlets in Neelum valley, reducing three civilian houses to ashes. As the residents had already vacated the houses, there were no casualties.

However, ironically, Indian officials and a section of their media made ludicrous claims that they had destroyed “terror camps” across the LoC.

The fresh claim was reminiscent of a similar fallacious claim in the wake of the ruthless shelling of Jura and Shahkot sectors of Neelum valley and Nauseri sector of district Muzaffarabad on the night of Oct 19-20 that had left six civilians martyred.

Islamabad had flown foreign diplomats to Jura, Shahkot and Nauseri sectors on Oct 22 to witness for themselves whether the Indian Army had “smashed four terror launch-pads” or civilian properties.

Taking strong exception to suchlike false claims, AJK’s senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq said the Indian army was propagating false claims to pleasing hard-line followers of India’s ruling party.

“Indian army comprises not only butchers but also spinners of yarns who after targeting innocent civilians and their properties on our side of [the] LoC come up with barefaced lies and asinine claims to justify their being on the one hand and to please the fanatic BJP followers on the other,” he tweeted.

According to AJK officials, as many as 59 civilians have lost their lives and another 279 have sustained injuries in different areas of AJK in the ongoing year as a result of ceasefire violations by the Indian army.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2019