Pakistan would have responded proportionately if there had been surgical strike: Abdul Basit

Delhi: Pakistan seems to be in a constant state of denial.

Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit, on Wednesday, denied surgical strikes carried out by Indian Army across Line of Control (LoC) at terror launch pads, saying in an interview with India Today his country was striving to have good ties with India.

He added that it a cross-border firing and not a surgical strike which was a result of ceasefire violation.

"If there was any surgical strike, Pakistan would have responded proportionately," Basit was quoted as saying by the media house.

On several countries backing out of the SAARC summit, Basit said that it was was not cancelled but postponed.

Saying that Pakistan would host SAARC in future, he maintained, "Pakistan wants peace with every country."

Uri terror attack and surgical strikes

In the worst attack on the Army in many years, heavily armed militants suspected to be from Pakistan-based JeM had stormed a base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in the wee hours of September 18, killing 18 jawans, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to assert that those responsible would not go 'unpunished'.

Located barely a few kilometres from the LoC and some 70 km from Srinagar, the base was subjected to the brazen attack by four terrorists at around 5.30 am.

Most of the Army casualties resulted from the fire in tents in which jawans were sleeping.

After the three-hour gunbattle, four terrorists were killed by the Army. 

Days after the terror attack, India, on the intervening night of September 28 and 29, carried out surgical strikes on terror launch pads across LoC with Army operations causing 'significant casualties to terrorists and those providing support to them.'