In another verbal potshot directed towards Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Imran Khan has said Pakistan will retaliate with a befitting response if New Delhi launches any cross border strike or whips up war hysteria in an attempt to divert attention from its internal turmoil.
I have been warning the int community of this for some time and am reiterating it again: if India does such an operation to divert attention from its domestic chaos plus whip up war hysteria to mobilise Hindu nationalism, Pakistan will have no option but to give a befitting response.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 21, 2019
Elaborating further on India’s decision to strip the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status in August, the Pakistani Prime Minister warned of an upcoming "bloodbath" in the region.
"At the same time, the siege by Indian Occupation forces in [Kashmir] continues & a bloodbath can be expected when it is lifted. As these protests are increasing, the threat to Pakistan from India is also increasing. Indian Army Chief's statement adds to our concerns about a False Flag operation," said Khan.
Alleging an increased threat from India, Khan raised concerns over Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s statement on a potential escalation between the two South Asian neighbours.
Rawat said last week that the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) could escalate at any time in the wake of alleged ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the borders since the change in Kashmir's status.
In a long thread on Twitter, Khan also accused Modi of pursuing a “Hindutva Supremacist fascist ideology" over the past five years of his governance.
Over the last 5 years of Modi's govt, India has been moving towards Hindu Rashtra with its Hindutva Supremacist fascist ideology. Now with the Citizens Amendment Act, all those Indians who want a pluralist India are beginning to protest & it is becoming a mass movement.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 21, 2019
The Indian prime minister has yet to react to Khan's caustic remarks, which come at a time when protests in India against a controversial citizenship laws show no sign of abating.
Several parts of India have been witnessing protests over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, enacted by the federal government, that grants citizenship to illegal immigrants from six religious minorities – Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, if they arrived in India prior to 2015. It, however, doesn't extend to Muslims.
Since the Citizenship law was approved, people throughout the country have taken to the streets in protest, as opponents of the law claim it violates the Indian constitution.
Modi, for his part, has expressed deep distress over violent protests and said that the law was passed with overwhelming support from a large number of political parties in parliament and people should respect it as it would not affect any citizens in the country.
“I want to unequivocally assure my fellow Indians that the CAA does not affect any citizen of India of any religion. No Indian has anything to worry regarding this Act. This Act is only for those who have faced years of persecution outside and have no other place to go except India,” Modi tweeted earlier this week.
