Amritsar | Pakistan

The Foreign Office (FO) on Tuesday rejected the claim made by India that Pakistan had attempted to attack the Golden Temple in Amritsar — one of the holiest sites in Sikhism — during the recent tensions with the neighbouring country. New Delhi had accused Islamabad, without evidence, of orchestrating last month’s deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam. Pakistan had strongly denied the allegations and called for a neutral probe. As the situation turned into a military confrontation between the nuclear powers, it took American intervention for both sides to agree to a ceasefire. A day earlier, the Indian army claimed that Pakistan had attempted to target the Golden Temple and the attacks were “successfully thwarted”, The Hindu reported. The management of the temple was allowed to deploy guns to “counter potential drone and missile threats from Pakistan”, a senior army official told ANI. He was quoted as saying, “Fortunately, we visualised what they [Pakistan] were capable of doing … They were more interes...

KARACHI: India deliberately fired “projectiles” in its Punjab province and blamed Islamabad to prepare grounds for retaliatory attacks, Pakistan’s foreign minister said on Thursday. In a press conference, Ishaq Dar said India “deliberately fired” projectiles, three of which were dropped in Amritsar, the capital of Indian Punjab, located around 54km from Lahore. He added that a fourth projectile entered Pakistani airspace, which was shot down by the air defense system in Dinga, Gujrat, around 87km from the nearest point on the India-Pakistan border. Mr Dar’s remarks were in response to claims by New Delhi that it neutralised attempts by Pakistan to hit multiple “military targets” using “drones and missiles” on the night of Wednesday and Thursday. Mr Dar added that India’s “deliberate” attack was a “malicious strategy” to “falsely implicate Pakistan” for targeting civilians and incite Indian Sikhs. Sitting beside Mr Dar, the armed forces spokesperson also accused India of launching a false flag operation. ISPR ...