Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Reiterating that Pakistan’s boundaries were completely safe, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif on Friday said the armed forces would “defend each and every inch of our beloved country, no matter what the cost”.

Addressing the officials and officers while inaugurating the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) building’s state-of-the-art facilities near Kharian, the army chief said that Pakistan had been a victim of terrorism for over a decade and sacrificed a lot, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

“But the country has turned the tide against terrorism, primarily due to resilience displayed by the entire nation and professionalism of our security forces,” he said.

General Raheel said that Pakistan’s armed forces had the capacity to counter all threats. “Let there be no doubt that our valiant armed forces have the capability to counter complete threat spectrum,” he said, adding that God willing, with the backing of the entire nation, “we will defend each and every inch of our beloved country…”

The COAS appreciated all those responsible for imparting training at the NCTC with a focused approach to enhance the capacity of law enforcers through quality training, making the best use of the fully equipped facility.

According to the ISPR, the addition of new facilities has transformed NCTC into the best counter-terrorism training facility among contemporary armies. The new facilities will help upgrade the training centre’s infrastructure to accommodate foreign armies and Pakistan’s own law enforcement agencies’ growing demand for training with the Pakistan Army.

Strike Corps Commander Lt Gen Umar Farooq Durrani briefed the COAS on various aspects of the NCTC and said that as many as 231,000 troops of the armed forces and 3,483 officers and men of police and civil armed forces had been trained at the centre so far.

He said that besides imparting anti-terrorism training at the centre, five joint exercises had also been conducted there with friendly countries, including China, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Turkey. Meanwhile, defence attachés of various countries were also present at the occasion.

The statement by the army chief comes a days after the Indian army reportedly moved heavy artillery along the Line of Control (LoC).

According to a BBC Urdu report, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday spent his day at a military operation room where he monitored his army’s movement along the LoC.

The assault, in which four commando-style gunmen burst into the brigade headquarters in Uri at 5:30am on September 18, was among the deadliest in Held Kashmir, and has raised new fears of military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

In a knee-jerk reaction to the attack on the brigade headquarters, India’s civil and military leaders squarely blamed Pakistan, with media commentators calling for a military response. Pakistan, however, dismissed the Indian allegations as ‘baseless and unwarranted’.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) closed Lahore-Pakistan motorway on Thursday to let it practice landing jets on the road, in what it said was routine training not related to heightened tension.

“You referred to some exercises on Pakistan’s side. Let me tell you that these are routine exercises,” Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said, adding that the armed forces and the entire nation of Pakistan remain ready to defend country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at all costs.

India has long accused Pakistan of playing a role in the 27-year-long insurgency against its occupation in Kashmir. Calls for a military response have increased since the Uri attack, particularly from some politicians within Modi’s ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Pakistan denies sending fighters into Indian-held Kashmir but voices support for fighters seeking to end Indian rule there. The countries have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region. The Held Kashmir has been under a major security lockdown during more than two months of protests triggered by the July 8 killing by Indian security forces of Burhan Wani, a popular young commander of Hizbul Mujahideen.