Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday warned that “hostile agencies from abroad are trying to destabilise our country”, days after a cross-border attack on a checkpost near the Rajgal valley border martyred a soldier, the army’s media wing said in a press release. “They [hostile agencies] fear the army being a hurdle to achieving their nefarious designs,” Gen Bajwa said during a visit to the family of Lt Arsalan Alam, the 22-year-old martyred soldier, according to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) handout.

The army chief said the armed forces would continue to perform in the country’s best interests and stand by the nation against all challenges. “Pakistan’s enemy is our enemy. Use of force is the prerogative of the state alone,” he said, according to the ISPR. The army chief vowed to restore peace and rule of law and render whatever sacrifice required for the purpose. During his visit to Lt Alam’s family home in Murree, the army chief paid tribute to the soldier and offered prayer for him.

He also interacted with his family and said that the army and nation were proud of their martyrs. “No power can harm us… [as long as] we have such valiant sons of soil and their brave parents in Pakistan,” he added. The Pakistan Army recently concluded Operation Khyber IV in Rajgal valley and declared the area cleared.

ISPR Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor had said during a press conference earlier this year that the army “cannot carry out operations against terror elements present on Afghan soil”. The latest cross-border attack comes as Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that Pakistan refuses to be a scapegoat for Afghanistan’s bloodshed or to fight wars for others.

Published in Daily Times, September 26^th 2017.