Pakistan on Thursday claimed the footage used by an Indian news channel of an Army official confirming India’s military strikes along the Line of Control was “forged”. On Wednesday, CNN-News18 had aired an interview with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s General Ghulam Akhbar, who confirmed that the operation did take place. An official from the neighbouring country’s foreign affairs ministry has said Akhtar denied having spoken to any news channel about the military strikes.
A statement from the ministry said the reporter impersonated the general, and that Akhbar said it was not even his voice that played during the channel’s recording. Pakistan denounced the move, which it called a “despicable act of fraud”, adding that, “This is a clear indication that certain quarters in India are desperate to prove Indian false claim of surgical strike by hook or by crook”. It also said the country had the right to take legal action against the channel.
India last week had said it carried out surgical strikes along the LoC on September 29, but Pakistan had denied any such operations and said it was nothing but cross-border firing.
Relations between the two neighbours have soured since a militant attack on an Army camp in Uri, in which 18 soldiers were killed while two others succumbed to their injuries later. Pakistan also denied India’s accusation that it was involved in the Uri attack. On Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said that Islamabad wanted “peace in the region”.
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