Border tension: Onus on Pakistan to de-escalate, says India

NEW DELHI: As stray incidents of firing continued to be reported from the international border in J&K, India further hardened its position saying the onus for de-escalation is on Pakistan.

After the Pakistan foreign ministry accused India of starting ceasefire violations, the MEA responded by saying that any such allegation from across the border couldn't be taken seriously as Pakistan is the country which harboured Osama bin Laden.

"It is for Pakistan to end its adventurism ... de-escalation is entirely in Pakistan's hands," said MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin. He warned Pakistan with "appropriate response" from India for whatever it chose to do.

"These allegations (about India being responsible for the standoff) are being made by those who harboured al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden for years in a garrison town even while claiming before the West that they were participating in the global war on terror," he said.

Insisting that Pakistan had already been given a befitting reply, the ministry said India did not get anything for PM Narendra Modi's several peace overtures after he assumed office. "We made the first move after the new government was formed but what is it that we got in return? A media spectacle before exploratory talks, hostile propaganda at UNGA, continued terrorism from across the border and now ceasefire violations. We will respond appropriately to their efforts," said the spokesperson, adding that peace and tranquility needed to be restored on the international border/ LoC.

"We will not talk out of fear but we have no fear of talks," said Akbaruddin.

Earlier in the day, the Pakistan foreign office said Islamabad was merely responding in a strong and measured way to the situation that had been created on the LoC and 'working boundary'. The spokesperson said if India really believed that the ceasefire violations were started by Pakistan, it should have allowed UNMOGIP to visit the LoC and international boundary.

India though described UNMOGIP as a tool of the bygone era and one on which "scarce resources" couldn't be wasted.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's National Security Committee, which met under PM Nawaz Sharif's chairmanship, said war is not an option as it stressed, in what was seen as a warning to Indian authorities, the fact that "both countries are aware of each other's capabilities". It is the shared responsibility of the leadership of both the countries to immediately defuse the situation, it said.

Pakistan's defence minister, too, had reminded India on Thursday that both the countries were nuclear-armed. The Committee also expressed the "resolve" that any attempt to challenge Pakistan's territorial integrity and sovereignty will be responded with full force. The Armed Forces, it said, assured the National Security Committee that they are fully prepared to deal with any adversity.