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 on Wednesday afternoon, 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 from 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. He said we faced more than 70,000 casualties during the last decade and we can understand the feelings of bereaved families. That is why I 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. The Prime Minister said he feared India will act due to its election compulsions. We took time to respond to India as we wanted to ascertain our damages first.
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. He said two Indian aircraft were shot down by our air force and their pilots have been captured.
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 became protracted and resulted in loss of millions of lives. He said all wars in the world resulted in miscalculations. He asked India whether we can afford miscalculations in the presence of lethal weapons possessed by both the countries.