Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed yesterday to respond to any Indian aggression in Pakistani Kashmir, vowing it was time to teach New Delhi a lesson.
Khan's comments come amid rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors after India scrapped the autonomy of Indian Kashmir last week.
"The Pakistani army has information that they (India) are planning to do something in Pakistani Kashmir, and it is ready and will make a strong response," Khan said in a televised address from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's Kashmir region. End".
Khan's warnings marked a sharp escalation in Pakistani rhetoric, after Islamabad said last week that it ruled out a "military option" to resolve the conflict. "It is time to teach New Delhi a lesson," Khan said in a speech marking his country's independence.
This comes more than a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a surprise executive decree abolishing the special status granted to the Himalayan region. In response, Pakistan launched a diplomatic campaign aimed at halting the resolution and formally asked the UN Security Council late yesterday to hold an emergency session to discuss India's "illegal actions".
Pakistan also expelled the Indian ambassador, halted bilateral trade and suspended cross-border transport services, in steps unlikely to affect New Delhi, analysts said.
Indian Kashmir has been closed for more than a week, with tens of thousands of troops sent in reinforcements to Srinagar, its main city, and other towns and villages, with a curfew in the area and telephone and Internet lines cut off.
Indian forces are patrolling the main roads of the province, and security forces, on Friday, used tear gas to disperse a demonstration in which about 8,000 people participated to protest the government's move.
The governor of Jammu and Kashmir state that the curfew imposed on the Indian part of Kashmir will be eased after the Independence Day on Thursday, but telephone lines and Internet will remain cut off, as quoted by local media yesterday.