Responding to Indian PM Narendra Modi’s claim that Pakistan would “bite dust” in case of war with India, Islamabad urged New Delhi not to underestimate its army, invoking an aerial dogfight that led to an Indian pilot’s capture.
The war of words between Pakistan and India has escalated, and has recently seen the two nuclear-armed nations trading barbs to highlight the strength of their respective military forces. The latest round in the verbal back-and-forth began on Tuesday, with Modi saying that the Indian Army could take down neighboring Pakistan in a week – 10 days at the most.
Also on rt.com Indian PM Modi says it would take Indian Army 10 days max to ‘make Pakistan bite dust’Islamabad delivered a verbal blow of its own on Wednesday. Pakistani Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Aisha Farooqui dismissed Modi’s assessment, calling the rhetoric coming out of New Delhi “belligerent,” and India itself “a threat to regional peace and security.”
Farooqui said the Pakistani Army proved it’s more than capable of striking back during a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani warplanes in February of last year that almost brought the two regional rivals to the brink of all-out war.
"Pakistan’s immediate and effective response to India’s Balakot misadventure, including the downing of Indian fighter aircraft and capture of Indian pilot last year, should suffice to underscore the will, capacity and preparedness of our armed forces"
The showdown in the skies over the disputed Kashmir region in late February was preceded by an attack of a Pakistani-based militant group on an Indian police patrol that killed over 40 soldiers. India fought back by carrying out what it called preemptive strikes on the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir to wipe out the terrorist group’s training camp. Islamabad denied that there were any terrorists there, however, and launched retaliatory shelling in a tit-for-tat response.
While tensions have subsided a bit since then, the two countries remain embroiled in a decades-old conflict over the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan has long sought international mediation, while India insists that the issue should be dealt with on a bilateral basis.
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