India Rejects "Preposterous" Pak Claim Of Prepping New Attack This Month

Pakistan's claim comes more than a month after Indian air strikes on a Jaish-e Mohammed camp at Balakot

Pakistan's claim that India is planning another attack on its territory this month is "preposterous" and "irresponsible" and is meant to whip up war hysteria in the region, New Delhi today said. "This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India," the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Pakistan needs to take "credible and irreversible steps" against terrorism instead of "making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross- border terrorism," the spokesperson said.

Earlier today, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. "As per our information, this could take place between April 16 and 20," he said, adding Pakistan's concerns have been communicated to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Pakistan's claim come more than a month after Indian Air Force's air strikes on a terror camp of Jaish-e Mohammed at Balakot. The next day, Pakistani fighter jets had violated Indian airspace and targeted Indian military installations.

In an aerial dogfight that followed, India had downed a Pakistani F-16 aircraft. But the IAF pilot who shot down the plane, Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured by Pakistan and released only after behind-the-scene manoeuvring by the international community.

India said its air strikes on the terror camp was "non-military, and pre-emptive" in nature, as there was intelligence that the group was planning more strikes in India.

Jaish had accepted responsibility for the suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in which 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed. The terror group headed by Masood Azhar had also posted a video of the alleged killer, a Kashmiri man called Adil Ahmed Dar.

"It has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility of a cross border terrorist attack in India," New Delhi said today. "Pakistan has been advised to use established diplomatic and DGMO channels to share any actionable and credible intelligence it has about imminent terror attacks. India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross border terrorist attack," the ministry spokesperson added.