By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday firmly denied India’s accusation that it planned to attack the Golden Temple, a sacred Sikh site in Amritsar, during recent military clashes between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The rebuttal comes as a fragile ceasefire, brokered after weeks of escalating hostilities, holds uneasily, with the United States claiming a role in de-escalation, a claim India has rejected.
The latest dispute followed last month attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam districted, where militants killed 26 civilians, an incident India blames on Pakistan without public evidence. Pakistan has rejected the charge and called for an independent investigation. The ensuing skirmishes prompted US involvement and a ceasefire, but India’s new claim of a thwarted attack on the Golden Temple has intensified the war of words, with both sides trading sharp accusations.
The Hindu newspaper reported that Indian military army had foiled a plot targeting the Golden Temple during the recent unrest. A senior Indian army official, cited by ANI news wire, said Pakistan “aimed to sow chaos by hitting civilian and religious targets”.
“Fortunately, we visualised what they [Pakistan] were capable of doing … They were more interested in creating confusion, chaos internally, and hence, we visualised that they would target our civil population and our religious places of worship,” the official told ANI.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office dismissed the accusation as groundless. “We categorically reject the allegations that Pakistan attempted to target the Golden Temple, the most revered place in the Sikh faith,” Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said in a statement.
“We hold all places of worship in the highest esteem and cannot think of targeting a holy site like the Golden Temple.”
He accused India of fabricating the claim to shift focus from its own actions, saying Indian forces struck religious sites in Pakistan during clashes on May 6-7.
“Pakistan is the proud custodian of many holy sites of the Sikh faith. Every year, it welcomes thousands of Sikh pilgrims from across the world,” Khan said. Pakistan provides visa-free access to the Gurdwara Sahib Kartarpur through the Kartarpur Corridor.
“In that backdrop, any claim concerning Pakistan’s attempt to target the Golden Temple is absolutely baseless and incorrect.”
A day earlier Pakistan also refuted Indian reports of deploying nuclear-capable Shaheen missiles, with Khan calling them “fabricated.”
A tense escalation began on May 6 when Indian air strikes hit civilian targets in Pakistan’s Punjab province and Azad Kashmir. Pakistan retaliated, downing six Indian jets, intercepting drones, and striking Indian airbases. The tit-for-tat ended only after US intervention on May 10 secured a ceasefire.
President Donald Trump has reiterated US brokered ceasefire several times. “We worked hard to bring India and Pakistan back from the brink,” Trump announced the ceasefire in a post on his social media platform.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump, but India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, testifying Monday before India’s parliamentary committee on external affairs, denied any US role.
“Pakistan proposed the ceasefire, and India agreed to it,” Misri told the 31-member panel, chaired by Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, according to Hindustan Times. “No other country was involved in the negotiations.” He acknowledged “routine talks” with US officials but emphasized, “There was no mediation.”
The three-hour session, reported by multiple Indian outlets, grew contentious as lawmakers questioned India’s silence on Trump’s claims. “Trump publicly claimed at least seven times that he facilitated the ceasefire. Why was India silent?” India Today quoted an unnamed panel member as asking. Another lawmaker pressed, per Times of India: “Why did India allow Trump to repeatedly seize the narrative?” Misri called Trump’s posts informal and not requiring a formal reply.
Misri, in his testimony, reassured lawmakers that the conflict between the two nuclear armed countries remained “entirely in the conventional domain.” “There was no nuclear signaling from Pakistan,” Hindustan Times reported Misri as saying.
The parliamentary committee also pressed Misri on India’s military losses, including six fighter jets downed by the Pakistan Air Force. Citing national security, Misri declined to provide details.
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