Bangladesh backs India’s surgical strikes across LoC

Dhaka: India has “all legal and globally accepted right” to respond to any attack on her sovereignty and territory, Bangladesh said on Thursday after Indian Army carried out surgical strikes against terror bases across the LoC but called for “restraint” from all sides.

“India has got all legal, internationally accepted right to make a response to any attack on her sovereignty and her soil,” Iqbal Chowdhury, advisor to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said.

Commenting on the Kashmir issue, he said it is a “bilateral dispute” and there has been a “violation from the other side”. “It (Kashmir issue) has been a long, continued dispute and there has been a... violation from the other side and Bangladesh always believes that any aggression or attack on the sovereignty of the independence and legal right of a country is not acceptable and Bangladesh always feels that any country must honour and respect the sovereignty of a third country,” he said.

Chowdhury said after Bangladesh premier Hasina came to power, she had asserted that Bangladeshi soil will not be allowed to house any terrorist group and to plan or organise any attack or activity on the Indian side, and has been “very committed on this point that (there is) zero tolerance to any (such) type of activity.” “...I think that the Indian government and the people have all the right to rebuff and to combat any type of aggression from any quarter whether it is from a neighbouring country,” he told an Indian TV channel over phone.

He, however, appealed for “restraint” from all sides for a peaceful neighbourhood,

“Bangladesh always feels that in these type of things, there should be restraint from all sides because we believe that in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries, we need to live in a peaceful environment, honouring the sovereign rights of each member country,” he added.

His comments came after India carried out ‘surgical strikes’ on terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir last night, inflicting “significant casualties” on terrorists and those who are trying to support them.