Pakistan foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch disagrred with the contents of a new book penned by a former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria.
She said the book, 'Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan', is only an attempt to “advance India’s fictitious narratives around the developments of February 2019 and the usual chest thumping that Indian officials have adopted as their default narrative”.
The book covers significant events such as the Pulwama attack, the Balakot airstrike, and the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir. The book notably reveals an incident where former PM Imran Khan, fearing an Indian missile attack post-Balakot, tried to initiate a midnight call with Indian PM Narendra Modi to avert further escalation.
“As the next Lok Sabha elections draw closer, it is not surprising that a Pakistan bashing, jingoistic and militaristic narrative is now being unleashed in India,” she further noted.
Imran Khan as Pakistan Prime Minister had "announced" the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured by Pakistani forces after an aerial dogfight on February 26, 2019.
It is true Imran Khan dubbed the release of Abhinandan Varthaman as a "peace gesture"; the factof the matter, according to the then India's envoy Ajay Bisaria, this was due to India’s coercive diplomacy.
It is also worth recall that PM Modi mentioned about the episode and India's stance vis-a-vis to compel Pakistan government to release the captured Air Force Commander and had said at an election campaign, "Fortunately, Pakistan announced that the pilot would be sent back to India. Else, it would have been Qatl ki raat, a night of bloodshed."
In his new book, 'The Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan', Ajay Bisaria, then India High Commissioner in Pakistan, says panic-stricken Imran Khan had tried to reach out to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi fearing missile attack.
Bisaria recalls that on the night of February 27, 2019, Pakistan feared an imminent attack from India, with "credible intelligence" indicating that nine Indian missiles were being targeted at Pakistani territory.
"The message that was going from India then was very clear that India is going to escalate the situation in case the pilot was not returned," Bisaria now said in a TV interview. He also said referring to the 'conversation' at various levels Indian side had with Pakistani authorities, India had developed a "confidence that the pilot would be returned because the consequences would have been serious".
These came a day after Balakot airstrikes conducted by the Indian Air Force on terror hideouts in Pakistan on February 26, 2019. The strikes were in response to a terrorist attack on paramilitary personnel in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, on February 14, 2019.
According to Bisaria, then Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua received a message from the Army, saying that nine missiles from India were pointed towards Pakistan and could be launched any time that day. The foreign secretary requested the envoys to report this intelligence to their capitals and ask India not to escalate the situation, notes Bisaria.
The new book also says that over 40,000 lives had been lost in Kashmir and USD 40 billion had been spent on Kashmir, ten times more per capita than the national average. Business as usual was no longer tenable.
"The Article 370 move aimed to correct a historical wrong that had been allowed to persist for too long," the book notes.
According to Bisaria in February 2019 as the crisis deepened, Imran Khan took a decisive step by requesting a midnight phone call to PM Modi, seeking urgent dialogue to defuse the escalating tension. The call was reportedly requested by the then Pakistani High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood.
"At around midnight, I got a call in Delhi from Pakistani High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood, now in Islamabad, who said that PM Imran Khan was keen to talk to Prime Minister Modi. I checked upstairs and responded that our prime minister was not available at that hour, but in case Imran Khan had any urgent message to convey, he could, of course, convey it to me. I got no call back that night," Bisaria says in his book.
Later that night, the US and UK envoys in Delhi told India’s foreign secretary that Pakistan was "ready to de-escalate the situation, act on India’s dossier, and to seriously address the issue of terrorism", notes Bisaria.
The next day, Imran Khan addressed the media and announced the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured by Pakistani forces after an aerial dogfight on February 26, 2019.
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