Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has stated that India is waging a “low-intensity” war against Pakistan from Afghanistan, adding that New Delhi’s is trying to “settle the score” after taking being defeated during the four-day conflict with Islamabad in May.
Asif expressed these views during an interview with Al Arabiya English, that was released late on Wednesday. His remarks are a continuation of the censure he had been directing toward Kabul, and to some extent New Delhi, in connection with terror incidents in Pakistan, recent border hostilities with Afghanistan and the subsequent failure of talks with its Taliban rulers.
He was asked during his interview with Al Arabiya about the evidence he had to back his assertions that New Delhi was “pulling the strings” during talks with Taliban representatives in Doha and Turkey.
“When it comes to showing the evidence, or tabling the evidence, we will do that. We have the evidence,” Asif replied, highlighting that the Afghan foreign minister was visiting the Indian capital when border clashes began between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He went on to say that there was no doubt about Afghanistan having become an “Indian proxy”.
“And India is actually waging a low-intensity war against us from the Afghan territory and trying to settle the score [after] the last round we had around six or five months back, when they were squarely defeated. And they lost seven planes.
“The president of the United States has, on several occasions, mentioned — he even mentioned it yesterday — that seven beautiful planes were lost in the clash between India and Pakistan,” he added.
The conflict between the two countries in May was sparked by an attack on tourists in occupied Kashmir, which New Delhi, without evidence, linked to Pakistan. Islamabad strongly denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation.
New Delhi then launched deadly air strikes in Punjab and Azad Kashmir on May 7. After tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases during the four-day escalation, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire. Pakistan initially said it had downed five Indian planes in air-to-air combat, and later raised the tally to seven.
US President Donald Trump has also mentioned the downing of seven jets during the conflict on multiple occasions, but has stopped short of elaborating on which side lost the jets.
More to follow
