Indian PM Vows to Punish Pakistan for Future Attacks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan that India will punish its neighbor if there are future attacks on India as he marked 78 years of independence from British colonial rule.
Modi’s remarks on Friday come three months after nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan engaged in four days of intense fighting, their worst clash in decades.
Modi addressed the country from New Delhi’s 17th-century, Mughal-era Red Fort, saying India has established a “new normal” that does not differentiate between “terrorists” and those who support terrorism. He said he would not tolerate what he called Islamabad’s “nuclear blackmail.”
“India has decided that it will not tolerate nuclear threats. For a long time, nuclear blackmail had been going on but this blackmail will not be tolerated now,” Modi said, the AP reported.
Pakistan previously has rejected India’s statements about nuclear blackmail as provocative and inflammatory.
India celebrates its Independence Day one day after Pakistan. The two states came into existence as a result of the bloody partition of British India in 1947. The process sparked some of the worst communal violence the world has seen and left hundreds of thousands dead. It triggered one of the largest human migrations in history and some 12 million people fled their homes.
India and Pakistan exchanged tit-for-tat military strikes in May that brought them to the brink of a war. The fighting between the two countries was sparked by an April massacre by gunmen in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists. India blamed the attack on Pakistan-backed militants. Islamabad denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation.
Days after the massacre, India launched strikes on Pakistan and said it had hit nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites.
“Terror infrastructure was turned to rubble,” Modi said in his speech Friday.
Pakistan responded by sending waves of drones into India, as well as missile and artillery bombardments. Dozens of people were killed on both sides until a ceasefire was reached May 10 after US mediation.
Pakistan immediately claimed it shot down six Indian aircraft during the clashes, including a French-made Rafale fighter. India acknowledged some losses but did not provide details.
