New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday rejected the claims made by Pakistan of India planning an attack on the neighbouring country. In a statement on Sunday night, MEA called Pakistan Foreign Minister's statements ‘irresponsible’ and ‘preposterous’. “India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in the statement.

A report by news agency Reuters quoted Pakistan minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as saying, “We have reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. As per our information, this could take place between April 16 and 20.” Qureshi, however, did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had or how he could be so specific with the timing. Nevertheless, the Pakistan Foreign Minister did mention that Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed to share the information with the country.

“India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India, news agency PTI quoted Kumar as saying in MEA’s official statement.

He said India reserves the right to respond ‘firmly and decisively’ to any cross-border terrorist attack. India struck the biggest terrorist training camp of terror group Jaish-e-Muhammed deep inside Pakistan on February 26, twelve days after the dastardly Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. The JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack.

“No attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed. Pakistan needs to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism,” he said.

The MEA spokesperson further added that Pakistan has been advised to use established diplomatic and DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) channels to share any actionable and credible intelligence it has about imminent terror attacks.
"A new mishap could be staged... And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," Qureshi had alleged earlier in the day. He further said, "We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and reprimand them [India] for taking this route.