Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said on Saturday that Pakistan was neither aggressor nor provocator, it only responded to unprovoked Indian aggression in self-defence under the United Nations Charter.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, he said Pakistan was a responsible country which had shown great restraint in the wake of Indian unprovoked attacks for past four days.
India targeted the civilian population in Pakistan and killed innocent people, including women and children who had nothing to do with anything, Attaullah Tarar maintained.
Pakistan, he added, retaliated in accordance with the UN charter, and it did not target any civilian population in India.
“We completely deny, we refute the Indian allegations of targeting the civilian population.
We have not attacked any civilian population”, Tarar said.
He said Pakistan took action while exercising its right to defend itself, and it only targeted Indian military installations.
He said India itself targeted Sikhs holy city Amritsar to give impression that Pakistan had attacked that city.
“We in Pakistan protest and serve their religious site in Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib and Kartarpur”, he stated.
To a question, he said that Pahalgam was located more than two hundred kilometers from the Line of Control (LoC)and there was no evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the April 22 incident.
Pakistan, he said, had offered cooperation in a fair and transparent investigation into the Pahalgam incident.
India made the Pahalgam incident suspicious by registering an FIR just ten minutes after the attack, Tarar maintained.
He said Pahalgam attack was a security and intelligence failure as more than 700,000 Indian troops have been deployed in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir(IIOJK). Local Muslim population has been subjugated by the Indian occupation forces, he said.
Tarar said India had attacked Pakistan to which it had responded, though Islamabad showed all possible restraint during past few days. India continued attacking civilian population and tried to target Pakistan’s defense installations and Pakistan had to respond in self-defence.
To a question about steps for de-escalation, he said it was India which started aggression and now India will have to take a step back.
“India stated the aggression and now it is upto India to take a step back and deescalate the situation because they are the aggressors”, he categorically said.
To a question, he said that the leadership of many friendly countries like the United States, Saudi Arabia, China, etc were in contact with Pakistan and had discussed the current situation.