Later, State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said that Kerry “reiterated the need for Pakistan to prevent all terrorists from using Pakistani territory as safe havens, while commending recent efforts by Pakistani security forces to counter extremist violence”.
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“Since 1989, a militant insurgency supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency has left thousands of Hindus dead, and has driven out more than 350,000 people from the Kashmiri Pandit community from the Kashmir Valley”, it alleged.
After giving an assurance of going after the perpetrators of the deadly Uri attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday gave the green signal to diplomatically isolate Pakistan at every global grouping. Prasad also warned against loose talk of conducting cross-border strikes. “Small-arms exchange of fire is on in the area”, a senior police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He further said, “As is often the case, the terrorists’ aim is for the situation to escalate”.
Taking note of a hostile narrative being propagated by India, COAS said that we are fully cognizant and closely watching the latest happenings in the region and their impact on the security of Pakistan.
Washington has already cut back military and economic aid to Pakistan, in part because it says Islamabad did not target the Pakistan-based Haqqani militant network blamed for a widening insurgency in Afghanistan.
On Sunday, heavily armed militants suspected to be from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad had stormed the army base in Uri in Kashmir killing 18 jawans.
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Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. “One soldier was killed and the operation is going on”, he said. Escalation, it is maintained, will not spiral out of control and as regards the nuclear sabre-rattling that Pakistan invariably engages in, the mood is: ‘enough is enough, let us call their bluff’. “In all these attacks we have gathered irrefutable evidence to prove Pakistan’s complicity”, said sources. Around eight terrorists had been killed till last count while others were engaged in an encounter.
