India accuses Pakistan of stirring up ‘war hysteria’ by making false claims

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Sunday that Islamabad had “reliable intelligence” indicating that India has planned a new attack on Pakistan between April 16 and 20. That information was also submitted to the UN Security Council, according to the top diplomat.

India was quick to respond, with its Foreign Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar rejecting it as “irresponsible and preposterous” later in the day.

Kumar said the claim had “a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region,” and that Islamabad “cannot absolve itself of responsibility” for a militant car bombing that ripped through a convoy of Indian paramilitary forces in the New Delhi-controlled section of Kashmir in mid-February, killing over 40 them.

“This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India,” the official added. “No attempt at creating an alibi for its (Pakistan’s) complicity in such attacks will succeed.”

Kumar further described Qureshi’s remarks as nothing short of a provocation, emphasizing that India reserves the “right to respond firmly and decisively to a cross-border terrorist attack.”

He called on Pakistan to take “credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism.”

India has said Pakistan is to blame for the deaths of Indian troops in Kashmir due to its support for the pro-independence militants behind the blast in the Himalayan region, which is divided between the two nuclear armed states but is claimed in its entirety by both sides.

Islamabad has denied any role in the bloodshed.

In retaliation for the deadly bomb attack, the Indian military conducted “preemptive” airstrikes inside Pakistan later in February against what was said to be a militant training camp belonging to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group, which had claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Pakistan also retaliated and shot down an Indian fighter jet that it said violated its airspace. It also captured an Indian pilot during that operation, who was released days later in a “peace gesture.”

Tensions have, since then, been running high between the two neighbors, which, have fought four wars since their partition in 1947, three of them over Kashmir.

India-controlled Kashmir has been the scene of constant clashes between New Delhi’s forces and armed groups seeking Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan.

India regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants and allowing them across the restive frontier in an attempt to launch attacks. Pakistan strongly rejects the accusation.