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Pakistan Lacks Ability to Fight Full-Fledged War With India - Indian Defence Minister

New Delhi (Sputnik): Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that arch-rival Pakistan cannot engage in an all-out conflict with India and that’s why it’s resorting to a proxy war against it.
Sputnik

Addressing the parliament, the minister assured the nation on behalf of the armed forces that the Indian border is secure and adversaries will never succeed in their plan.

“Pakistan does not have the ability to run a full-fledged war against India, nor even a limited one. Hence, it tries to run a proxy war”, Singh said while speaking on the occasion of the Kargil anniversary in parliament.

Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has echoed a similar sentiment, saying Pakistan has been making desperate attempts to ensure the Kashmir issue remains alive. “Pakistan has been singled out. They are providing moral and financial support [to militants]”, Rawat said on Friday.

The statement came a day after the army chief ruled out a Kargil-like misadventure by Pakistan in the near future.

"It was a big misadventure undertaken by the Pakistan army in 1999. They did not appreciate the will and the intent of the Indian political establishment and the Indian Armed Forces that we will never allow them to succeed”, General Rawat said in New Delhi.

The two nuclear-armed nations became embroiled in a near war-like situation in February this year when Pakistan retaliated to an airstrike conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on 26 February and shot down one Indian fighter jet.

Nevertheless, in the dogfight, an F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force was, according to New Delhi, also brought down by a MiG-21 Bison of the Indian Air Force. Later on it was claimed that the two countries came perilously close to firing missiles at each other on 27 February.

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