New Pak army chief rejects India's claim of surgical strikes

Rawalpindi [Pakistan], Jan. 5 (ANI): The new Pakistani Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday rejected Indian claims of surgical strikes and said that Pakistan armed forces were fully geared to respond to any aggression by New Delhi. Military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said in a series of tweet: ""#COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa rejects self defeating claims by Indian COAS about 'so called surg strikes' and its possible recurrence." "Pakistan Armed Forces are fully geared to respond to any aggression by India" COAS. " Addressing a ceremony at the Khuzdar University, the Army Chief also expressed confidence that the current security challenges and external efforts to derail Balochistan's peace will end with the growing realisation of assured geo-economic advantages of a fully developed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), reports the News International. India in September last year, said it conducted surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir along the Line of Control, a claim Pakistan rejected. The surgical strikes took place eleven days after a pre-dawn attack by militants on an Indian army brigade headquarters in Uri in Kashmir on September 18. The attack left 18 soldiers dead. (ANI)