ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif rejected the top Indian Army officer’s claims about China’s ‘live [satellite] inputs’ to Pakistan during its recent conflict with India in May, saying such statements are aimed at pacifying the domestic audience.
India’s Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Rahul R Singh, claimed a day ago that Beijing provided real-time satellite intelligence to Islamabad to expose key Indian positions, while Turkiye provided a genre of military support via supplying drones.
India fought two adversaries during the conflict, with Pakistan being the “front face” while China provided “all possible support”, he alleged at a defence industry event in New Delhi.
“When the DGMO (director general of military operations) level talks were going on, Pakistan … said that we know that your such and such important vector is primed and it is ready for action … he was getting live inputs from China,” he said.
Singh did not elaborate on how India knew about the live inputs from China.
Singh said that Turkiye also provided key support to Pakistan during the fighting, equipping it with Bayraktar and “numerous other” drones, and “trained individuals”.
In a statement today, the defence czar said that Pakistan defeated India in the recent conflict and shattered New Delhi’s self-proclaimed pride.
He said that such statements from India were aimed at pacifying its domestic audience.
“The whole world supported us,” Asif said, adding that Israel was the only country standing with India, reflecting Delhi’s defeat on the diplomatic front.
Pakistani military has undoubtedly proved its mettle in the war with India, reiterated Asif.
The defence minister said that the war fought independently by Pakistan. Acknowledging diplomatic support from China and Turkiye, Asif said that buying defence equipment from a country doesn’t imply its involvement in the war.
“We also purchase weapons from the US — does that mean that it was involved too?” he questioned.
Rejecting the accusations, he pointed out that India uses France-made fighter jets while Pakistan has submarines of the same origin.
China extended diplomatic support to Pakistan during the war, he added.
Slamming the Indian accusations, the defence minister vowed that India would experience the same outcome if it resorted to aggression again.
The nuclear-armed rivals used missiles, drones and artillery fire during the four-day fighting — their worst in decades — triggered by an April attack on tourists in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad, before agreeing to a ceasefire brokered by the US.
Pakistan has denied involvement in the April attack and offered to participate in an independent and credible probe.
India’s relationship with China was strained after a 2020 border clash that sparked a four-year military standoff, but tensions began to ease after the countries reached a pact to step back in October.
India had earlier said that although Pakistan is closely allied with China, there was no sign of any actual help from Beijing during the conflict.
Regarding the possibility of China providing satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence, India’s chief of defence staff had said such imagery was commercially available and could have been procured from China or elsewhere.
