ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan has once again extended an offer of dialogue to India to defuse the current situation and resolve all issues peacefully.
Addressing the nation on state media, he said better sense should prevail as escalation in tension will not be in anybody’s interest.
Imran Khan warned if the matter steers towards further escalation neither he nor Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be able to contain the situation.
It is, therefore, important that we should act with wisdom and sanity.
The Prime Minister said the situation prevailing since yesterday required taking the nation into confidence. He said we offered India full cooperation in the wake of Pulwama incident. He said we understand that losing dear ones causes grief.
Imran Khan said we faced more than 70,000 casualties during the last decade in war on terror and we can understand the feelings of bereaved families. He said it was because of this reason that he offered investigation into the incident. He said it is not in our interest that anyone uses our soil for terrorism or foreign land is used against us.
He regretted the offer was not reciprocated by India.
Imran Khan said today’s action was taken to show that we have the capability and resolve to respond to any external aggression.
But we carried out the action avoiding collateral damage and civilian casualties.
The Prime Minister said it is easy to start a war but very difficult to conclude it. He mentioned the World Wars I and II that prolonged and resulted in loss of millions of lives.
He said all wars in the word resulted in miscalculations.
Imran Khan asked India whether we can afford miscalculations in the presence of lethal weapons possessed by both the countries.
