In the backdrop of the rising tensions over the Pahalgam terror incident, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that Islamabad is ready for “neutral investigation” into the deadly terrorist attack in the Jammu and Kashmir district that killed 26 people.
Addressing a ceremony at a military academy in Abbottabad, Sharif said, “Pakistan is open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation.”
However, he asserted that Pakistani forces remain "fully capable and prepared to defend the country's sovereignty and its territorial integrity against any misadventure as clearly demonstrated by its measured yet resolute response to India's reckless incursion in February 2019".
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Sharif's remarks comes after Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the New York Times that Islamabad was "ready to cooperate" with any investigation conducted by "international inspectors".
The attack in Baisaran, near Pahalgam, left 26 people, mostly civilians, dead. In response to the terrorism, India announced stringent measures against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. New Delhi also closed the integrated check point at Attari border and brought down the overall strength of the Pakistani high commissions in India.
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All Pakistani nationals, who entered the country via the Attari land border, were also asked to leave by May 1.
{{/usCountry}}All Pakistani nationals, who entered the country via the Attari land border, were also asked to leave by May 1.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Asif claimed that India used the terror attack as a pretext to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty for "domestic political purposes". He said that New Delhi took steps to punish Islamabad "without any proof and investigation".
"We do not want this war to flare up, because flaring up of this war can cause disaster for this region," Asif told NYT.
PM Modi's warning to Pahalgam terrorists
Notably, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi also vowed stern action against the perpetrators of the deadly terror attack, saying that New Delhi will "pursue the terrorists to the end of the earth".
“Today, from the soil of Bihar, I say to the whole world. India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth. India's spirit will never be broken by terrorism. Terrorism will not go unpunished,” the prime minister said.
He warned that the terrorists involved and those "who conspired towards this attack will get a punishment bigger than they can imagine".