The strike that didn't happen: Pakistan’s response to 'surgical attack'

A day after India officially announced as 'surgical strike' across the Line of Control in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, which the Army claimed killed scores of terrorists at their launch pads, the Pakistani establishment and media have had time to get their various stories, claims and counter-allegations in a line. 

 

For its part, Pakistan has officially declared that India’s claims of a 'surgical attack' across the Line of Control and its anti-terrorists operations are a 'cooked up story'.  

 

As can be expected, the Pakistani media has also taken up this line, making the entire issue in a giant - 'he said, she said' game. 

 

Pakistani media has called the entire operation an 'illusion' and various media programs claimed that Indian leaders were colouring routine operations as 'surgical' commando attacks to gain pseudo-publicity.

 

Even the Pakistani army, in its notification, has announced that it has given a 'candid' answer to India’s attack. 

 

"We take severe action if such surgical operations are conducted in our land,” the Pakistani army officially stated.

 

Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said that Pakistan does not want to escalate tensions, but is ready to meet any eventuality.
 

He said Pakistan would respond 'befittingly' to any firing by India across the Line of Control (LoC).

 

He also added that India was displaying an 'irresponsible attitude' and trying to deceive its own people. 

 

Even the Pakistani Air Force has refuted the statement of India. 

 

Air Chief Commander of Pakistan stated that Pakistan was always ready to combat such attacks.
 

Meanwhile, taking perhaps the other extreme side, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif loudly announced that "Pakistan's intent for peace should not be seen as its weakness." 

 

"The Pakistan army is fully capable of defending the country and is ready to combat Indian forces. We'll give a befitting response if our sovereignty faces any danger," he said. 

 

So on the one hand, the attack never happened. But if it did, then Pakistan's army was fully capable of counter-attacking such an attack. And if Pakistan was keeping silent, it was only that it did not want to escalate tensions. But tensions did escalate, then one must remember that Pakistan's peaceful intentions were not a weakness. Check. 

 

Incidentally, perhaps because the pot of irony was not yet full, Nawaz advised India that involving politics in military affairs was 'dangerous.'

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For the record, Sharif is the first Pakistani PM to take over from another civilian leader. The Pakistani military has, in a rare deviance from long-established norms, not held a coup...yet. 

 

The advice can be considered as taken.