BackPakistan will continue to respond to border attacks: defence minister
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to raise the issue of continued aggression at UN General Assembly session next month, says Pakistan's Khawaja Asif
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Sialkot (Pakistan): Pakistan will respond “with full force" if India continues to target the civilian population, Islamabad’s defence minister said on Saturday, after 13 people died when the two nations traded fire across their disputed border.
Nine died near the city of Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab province, and more than 40 were wounded on Friday, less than a week after high-level talks were aborted amid a row over Kashmir.
India said at least four villagers were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir by Pakistani fire.
“We will counter this situation on all levels. If war is forced on us we will take good care of them," Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Asif told AFP.
“Absolutely we have the right to retaliate, and retaliate in kind, retaliate in full force," Asif said after he visited the wounded in hospital.
He added, “If India crosses the international border and aggression is committed again, we will defend our homeland and inflict much more damage than 1965."
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would raise the issue of continued aggression at a UN General Assembly session next month, Asif said.
A meeting between the Indian and Pakistani national security advisers in New Delhi on Sunday was called off at the last minute following a dispute about whether the agenda should include Kashmir.
Shelling across the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir and the “working boundary" in Punjab has been on the rise this month.
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