Islamabad: Armed with a new ammunition after the controversial claim of India's Coast Guard DIG BK Loshali that his force had blown up an intruding boat in December, Pakistan hit back accusing India of being "heinous in its face".
"It has one again been proved that India has violated the international rules and disregarded the humanitarian considerations. India not only imposed baseless and false allegations on Pakistan like in the case of Samjhauta Express, but was involved in treacherously killing four innocent lives on board. India has once again proved to be heinous in its face, designs and urge for peace," Defence Minister Khawaja Asif alleged.
Asif reiterated that Pakistan's desire for peace and coexistence in the region must not be seen as its weakness.
Coast Guard DIG Loshali, Chief of Staff (North West Region), on Wednesday negated Indian government's claim that the crew of the intruding Pakistani boat had set it ablaze. A video released by The Indian Express shows Loshali claiming that he ordered the Pakistani boat which was near the Indian maritime border on the intervening night of December 31, 2014 and January 1, 2015 be blown off.
"I hope you remember 31st December. We blew off the Pakistan.. We have blown them off. I was at Gandhinagar and I told at night we don't want to serve them biryani," Loshali said in the video.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, however, stood his ground and also claimed that he could provide proofs to validate the government's statement that was made in early January 2015. Not offering to issue a clarification on the DIG's statement, he said that a probe will be ordered into his remarks.
A Pakistani boat was intercepted on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 along the maritime border off Gujarat coast after Indian intelligence agencies alerted the Coast Guard of the vessel being involved in some illegal transaction.
(With PTI inputs)
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