Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on Thursday warned in an interview with British broadcaster Sky News that any Indian ceasefire violation would be met with a “swift and assured response” by Pakistan, cautioning that serious escalation could result in mutual destruction.
The military confrontation between India and Pakistan came as the former blamed Islamabad for the Pahalgam attack. On the night of May 6-7, New Delhi launched a series of air strikes on Pakistan, resulting in civilian casualties. Both sides then exchanged missiles, which stretched over the week. It took American intervention for both sides to finally drop their guns.
On May 10, when tensions between the two countries peaked, US President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire had been reached between India and Pakistan. According to the government, forty civilians — including seven women and 15 children — lost their lives in the Indian aggression, and 121 others sustained injuries.
Speaking to Sky News, DG ISPR warned that by rooting for war, India was carving out a “recipe for mutual destruction,” adding that the world now recognised the extent of the nuclear threat.
“Any sane player like the USA understands this absurdity and what the Indians are trying to do here,” Lt Gen Chaudhry told the publications.
Talking about India’s actions in Kashmir, he accused the country of trying to “internalise the issue and harassing” Kashmiri people with a heavy troop presence.
“It is a problem that has to be resolved by the people of Kashmir as per the United Nations Security Council resolution,” he said.
He continued: “Anyone who tries to violate our territory and integrity and sovereignty, our response will be brutal.”
DG ISPR warned that a “serious escalation between India and Pakistan would destroy both sides” under the concept of mutually assured destruction — a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would result in the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.
In a press conference held last week after the ceasefire was brokered, DG ISPR had cautioned that a conflict between Islamabad and New Delhi “can lead to peril of more than 1.6 billion people.”
“In reality, there is no space for war between India and Pakistan,” he added.
