Targets selected in India by Pak army in case of any surgical strike, claims Pakistani media

Pakistan Army has made its operational plan ready in case of any surgical strike from Indian armed forces under its Cold Start Doctrine, according to a report in Pakistan news website. 

A report in The News International claims that the Pakistan forces have selected targets in India for an immediate response in case of any military strike from Indian side.

The report further quoted Pakistani defence sources as saying, “Pakistan is fully prepared to meet any military challenge from India. Our operational plan is ready, quid pro quo targets are finalised and forces have been dedicated. Pakistan would not digest any aggression from India."

“Whether it is a Cold Start or hot pursuit, we are ready,” The News International quoted another defence source as saying in its report. 

He was responding on a question about India’s reported preparations to attack selected targets in Pakistan under the Cold Start war doctrine.

On Sept 21, the same Pakistani website had reported that India moved the units of Indian Army and Indian Air Force to forward air bases near Line of Control (LoC) to launch surgical strikes as part of its three-phased strategy.

Pakistan's decision to close airspace over the country’s northern areas and flights by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter planes was taken as a precautionary step on Wednesday, and fuelled rumours that the armed forces were preparing for a possible Indian attack. 

The rumors of the possible Indian retaliation after the Uri terror attacks in Kashmir drove the stock market down in Karachi Stock Markets (KSE) when it opened on Thursday.

The small investors ran for cover and the Karachi stock markets fell by 1.41% on Thursday, wiping out gains netted in the month of September. 

The panic selling was triggered by individual small investors, who usually generate the biggest volumes in the market,

The tensions between the nuclear-armed adversaries have soared recently after the Uri terror attacks.

Heavily armed terrorists had stormed the Army camp in Kashmir's Uri sector in the wee hours of September 18, killing 18 jawans and injuring 19 other personnel in the terror strike in which four militants were neutralised.

Battle reaches UNGA

In its sharpest attack on Pakistan, India on Thursday called it a "terrorist state" which carries out "war crimes" by using terrorism as an "instrument of state policy", after Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif glorified Hizbul commander Burhan Wani at the United Nations.

India also strongly rejected Sharif's call for "a serious and sustained" bilateral dialogue "without any conditions", saying that Pakistan, which "seems to be run by a war machine rather than a government", wants talks with a "gun in its hand".

Strongly reacting to Sharif's remarks at the UN General Assembly session, Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar described them as full of "threat, bluster and complete disregard of facts" as he said glorification of Wani by him at the world forum is an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan.

He said it is "shocking" that a leader of a nation can "glorify a self-declared self-advertised terrorist" at a forum such as the United Nations General Assembly.

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