RAWALPINDI, October 22: Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Major-General Asif Ghafoor on Tuesday said that Pakistan has challenged the Indian government to take diplomats and journalists to Indian-occupied Kashmir.
The ISPR chief made the statement while talking to senior journalist Hamid Mir. Mir who had accompanied Ghafoor on a tour of the LoC on Tuesday.
Several diplomats and journalists had been invited to take a tour of the Line of Control (LoC) by the army in order to establish the ground reality about the presence of alleged terror camps in the area.
The Indian army chief had earlier made a statement with regards to the presence of these camps in the area, and claimed that the Indian army had destroyed them.
However, according to Mir, who toured the site on Tuesday morning, there appeared to be no training camps in the area, but rather only scattered village populations.
“Today diplomats and journalists visited the Line of Control and ascertained the ground reality with regards to claims by Indian army chief about presence of alleged terror camps in the area,” DG ISPR said.
“The whole of Pakistan has challenged the Indian government to take diplomats and journalists to their side of the Line of Control in Indian-
occupied Kashmir in a similar manner,” he added. Taking a chide at recent statements made by the Indian officials on occupied Kashmir, Major General Ghafoor remarked how India could see the reverence for Pakistan that people of Kashmir had in their hearts.
“I request the international community to travel to occupied Kashmir and tell the world the reality about the situation there. India can take the diplomats and journalists of its choosing from Pakistan,” he said.
“Pakistan is prepared to take these diplomats and journalists wherever India wants to take them. Journalists and diplomats have seen the ground reality with their own eyes here today,” he maintained.
The ISPR chief also lamented how the eight million people in occupied Kashmir had been under siege for 79 days now, cut-off from the outside world, and little or no news trickling out of the valley. – Agencies
