In his first interview since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire Saturday, Dar said Islamabad \u201chad no choice\u201d but to launch strikes in \u201cself-defense\u201d following India\u2019s May 7 cross-border attacks. <\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s escalatory tit-for-tat strikes marked the worst fighting between the two nuclear-armed nations since 1971, killing dozens and deepening fears of a wider conflict. <\/p>\n
Dar referred to India\u2019s strikes as a \u201cwar\u201d and a \u201cwishful attempt to establish its hegemony\u201d in the long-disputed Kashmir region \u2013 but said that the nuclear option was never on the table. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certain times when you have to take very serious decisions,\u201d he said, \u201cWe were very sure that our conventional capacity and capabilities are strong enough that we will beat them both in air and on ground.\u201d <\/p>\n
Following several days of fighting, Islamabad and New Delhi agreed to a US-brokered truce on Saturday, as explosions reportedly ripped through parts of Kashmir over one final burst of strikes. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe still hope sense will prevail,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India has \u201conly paused our responsive attack on Pakistan\u2019s terror and military hubs.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOperation Sindoor has drawn a new line under the fight against terrorism \u2013 this is a new phase, a new normal,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cIf there is a terror attack on India, we will give a jaw-breaking response.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIndia will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail,\u201d Modi cautioned. <\/p>\n
The Indian leader asserted the ferocity of his country\u2019s attacks pushed Pakistan to look for \u201cways to save themselves\u201d by reaching a ceasefire deal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were calling the world to reduce tensions after being completely destroyed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201c(The Indians) had seen what happened in the sky,\u201d he added. \u201cThey could see how serious the damage was.\u201d <\/p>\n
There was no direct contact between Indian or Pakistani officials, Dar said, contradicting a previous assertion made by India\u2019s director general of military operations, who reportedly received a message from his counterpart in Pakistan during the talks. <\/p>\n
Instead, Dar said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio passed on the message that India was ready to stop the fighting. <\/p>\n
Rubio said in a Saturday statement that he and US Vice President JD Vance had spoken to the political and military leadership in India and Pakistan to secure agreement before the situation deteriorated further. <\/p>\n
The Muslim-majority region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint in India-Pakistan relations since both countries gained their independence from Britain in 1947. <\/p>\n
The two nations to emerge from the bloody partition of British India \u2013 Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan \u2013 both claim Kashmir in full and, months after becoming independent, fought their first of three wars over the territory. <\/p>\n
The divided region is now one of the most militarized places in the world. <\/p>\n
Dar pointed to Kashmir as \u201cthe root cause of this regional instability\u201d and called for the region\u2019s \u201cfuture self-determination.\u201d <\/p>\n
India has long accused Pakistan of harboring militant groups in Kashmir that conduct attacks across the border against Indian security forces, a charge Islamabad has rejected. <\/p>\n
India launched its cross-border strikes last week in the wake of a tourist massacre in the Indian administered part of Kashmir in April. <\/p>\n
Dar reiterated that Pakistan was not behind last month\u2019s rampage, saying, \u201cWe condemn terrorism in all forms and all manifestations.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that he believes US President Donald Trump supports Pakistan\u2019s antiterrorism efforts. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they didn\u2019t believe (in our efforts), they would not have cooperated the way (that they did),\u201d Dar said, pointing to Trump\u2019s social media post on \u201cfinding a solution\u201d to the Kashmir conflict. <\/p>\n
However, Dar warned that the already precarious ceasefire could be threatened \u201cif the [Kashmir] water issue is not resolved\u201d in the coming talks, referring to ongoing disputes of access to water from rivers in Kashmir. Pakistan\u2019s proposed solution involves reversing India\u2019s decision to block three vast Kashmir rivers vital to Pakistan\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n
Failure to resolve the water issue \u201cwill amount to an act of war,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his first interview since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire Saturday, Dar said Islamabad \u201chad no choice\u201d but to launch strikes in \u201cself-defense\u201d following India\u2019s May 7 cross-border attacks. Last week\u2019s escalatory tit-for-tat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}