’Will take on terrorists, enablers both inside, outside nation’: Pak Army reacts after India’s advise to ‘look inside’

Following the Jaffar Express train hijacking by Baloch Rebel groups, Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General, Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said that terrorists along with their enablers and facilitators, would be challenged both inside and outside the country.

As reported by Dawn, addressing a press conference on the incident, Chaudhary said, “Terrorists will be dealt with as they deserve, as those who drag innocent people out of buses and slaughter them, a group that divides people by ethnicity, have no connection to Baloch [ethnicity] or Islam.”

Also Read: Explained: What is Pakistan’s Balochistan question?

“We will deal with them as they deserve. We will take them on, their facilitators, their abettors, whether inside Pakistan or outside Pakistan,” he added.

Meanwhile, Baloch rebels have claimed to kill 214 hostages and blamed Pakistan's "stubbornness" and "avoidance of negotiations" despite a 48-hour ultimatum.

Jeeyand Baloch, Spokesperson for the Baloch Liberation Army, a Baloch rebel organisation, said in a statement that despite an ultimatum given to the Pakistani forces, they did not heed to it, resulting in the death of 214 hostages.

Baloch Liberation Army had given the Pakistani army a 48-hour ultimatum to exchange prisoners of war, which was the last chance for the occupying army to save the lives of its personnel.

What did MEA say?

MEA official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We strongly reject the baseless allegations made by Pakistan. The whole world knows where the epicenter of global terrorism lies. Pakistan should look inwards instead of pointing fingers and shifting the blame for its own internal problems and failures on to others."

Also Read: India rejects Pakistan’s ‘baseless allegation’ regarding Balochistan train siege; calls Pak, ‘epicentre of terrorism’

The statement accused Pakistan of displaying its typical stubbornness and military arrogance, not only avoiding serious negotiations but also ignoring the realities on the ground. It claimed that this inflexibility led to the execution of all 214 hostages.

The rebel organization further asserted that they had always acted in accordance with international law, but Pakistan's refusal to engage forced them to take such extreme actions.

Also Read: Bomb blast at mosque in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa leaves senior cleric, 3 others injured

"BLA has always acted in accordance with the principles of war and international law, but the Pakistani state preferred to use its personnel as fuel for war instead of saving their lives. The enemy had to pay the price for this stubbornness in the form of the execution of 214 personnel," as per the statement.

On Thursday, ISPR Pakistan DG Lt. Gen. Sharif Chaudhry said that the Jaffar Express clearance operation, launched after the train's hijacking in Balochistan, was complete. He added that all rebels, 33 in all, at the site of the attack had been killed. 

(With inputs from ANI)