The military on Wednesday strongly reacted to the Indian army chief calling Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism”, saying that instead of trying to “conjure up non-existent terror infrastructure in Pakistan, it would be wise not to indulge in self-delusion,” a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

The statement came in response to Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi’s remarks during a press conference on January 13, ahead of India’s Army Day, when he claimed that in 2024, “60 per cent of the terrorists eliminated” in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir were allegedly of Pakistan origin.

General Dwivedi further alleged that “80pc of the remaining fighters in Indian-occupied Kashmir were of Pakistani origin”, according to the Press Trust of India.

In a strongly-worded response, the Pakistani military said: “Insinuating Pakistan as the epicentre of terrorism by the Indian Army chief is not only contrary to facts but also an exercise in futility to beat the dead horse of India’s default position — blaming Pakistan for Indigenous reaction to state-sponsored brutality. It is a classic case of extreme duplicity.”

The statement added that remarks were being made in an “attempt to deflect the world’s attention from India’s brutality in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK), repression of minorities internally, and India’s trans-national repression.”

It continued: “The General Officer, in his earlier stint in llOJK personally oversaw the most brutal repression of Kashmiris. Such politically motivated and fallacious statements reflect the extreme politicisation of the Indian Army.”

The statement further mentioned that the world was witness to India’s “hate-speech conclave that provoke genocide against Muslims,” adding that the international community was “not oblivious to India’s trans-national assassinations, and Indian Security Forces’ oppressive use of force against innocent civilians and gross human rights violations against unarmed Kashmiris.”

“Such oppression has only served to strengthen the resolve of Kashmiris for their right of self-determination, enshrined in the UN Security Council Resolutions,” it said.

The statement went on to say that “instead of trying to conjure up a non-existent terror infrastructure in Pakistan, it would be wise not to indulge in self-delusion, and appreciate the ground reality.”

Referring to Indian spy agent Kulbhushan Jadhav’s 2016 arrest in Pakistan, who confessed to fomenting terrorism in Balochistan and Karachi, the statement said: “The sobering fact that a senior serving Indian military officer is in Pakistan’s custody, caught red-handed while orchestrating acts of terror against innocent civilians inside Pakistan, seems to have been conveniently ignored by the General.

“Pakistan takes strong exception to such baseless and unfounded statements.”

The statement concluded by saying that Pakistan “empathised with the victims of the Indian Army’s brutality”.

“It is hoped that civility, professionalism, and norms of state-to-state behaviour would guide the conduct of Indian Army’s leadership, rather than pandering to political exigencies.”

More to follow