Pakistani military chief slams ‘insinuations’ over 'external support' in conflict with India

Pakistan's military chief Field Marshal Gen. Asim Munir slammed "insinuations" regarding "external support" during the recent "purely bilateral" conflict with India, after an Indian general said the country had more than more than one adversary in the fighting.

"Insinuations regarding external support in Pakistan's successful Operation Bunyanum Marsoos are irresponsible and factually incorrect," the army chief told graduating officers of the National Security and War Course at National Defense University in Islamabad on Monday.

They "reflect a chronic reluctance to acknowledge indigenous capability and institutional resilience developed over decades of strategic prudence," he said, according to an official statement by the military's media wing.

Last week, Indian military's deputy chief Lt. Gen. Rahul Singh claimed that China gave Islamabad "live inputs" during the four-day conflict in May when the two South Asian nuclear-armed nations fired missiles across the border. The hostilities ended with a US-brokered ceasefire.

New Delhi fought two adversaries during the conflict, with Pakistan being the "front face" while China provided "all possible support," Singh told a seminar.

"India's inability to achieve its stated military objectives during Operation Sindoor—and the subsequent attempt to rationalize this shortfall through convoluted logic—speaks volumes about its lack of operational readiness and strategic foresight," Munir claimed.

"Naming other states as participants in the purely bilateral military conflagration is also a shoddy attempt at playing camp politics and desperately trying that India remains the beneficiary of larger geopolitical contestation as the so-called net security provider in a region which is getting increasingly weary of its hegemonic and extremist Hindutva ideology," the military chief added.

There was no immediate response from New Delhi to Munir's statement.

The field marshal said: "Pakistan has forged lasting partnerships based on principled diplomacy, anchored in mutual respect and peace, establishing itself to be a stabilizer in the region."

Warning against any misadventure or attempts to undermine Pakistan's sovereignty or violation of territorial integrity, Gen. Munir said such attempts "will continue to be reflexively met with a swift, and resolute response without any constraints or inhibitions."

"Any attempt to target our population centers, military bases, economic hubs and ports will instantly invoke a 'deeply hurting and more than reciprocal response,'" he said.