RAWALPINDI: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Sunday strongly reacted to recent remarks made by the Indian army chief and warned New Delhi against pushing South Asia towards another conflict that could have “devastating” consequences for the entire region.
In a statement issued in response to Indian Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi’s comments during a recent interview, the ISPR said the Indian military chief had stated that “Pakistan should decide if it desired to be part of geography and history”.
Rejecting the remarks, the military’s media wing said that despite what it described as the “delusional and hallucinational belief system” prevailing in Hindutva-led India, Pakistan remained an important country on the global stage, a declared nuclear power, and an inseparable part of South Asia’s geography and history.
The ISPR observed that the statement reflected the Indian leadership’s continued inability to accept the existence of Pakistan even after more than eight decades. It added that such a “hubristic, jingoistic and myopic mindset” had repeatedly pushed South Asia towards wars and crises in the past.
Calling the remarks dangerous, the ISPR said threatening a sovereign nuclear state with elimination from “geography” was not an example of strategic signalling or brinkmanship, but rather showed “bankruptcy of cognitive capacities, madness and warmongering”. It warned that any such geographic obliteration would inevitably be “mutual and comprehensive”.
The military’s media affairs wing stressed that responsible nuclear states should demonstrate restraint, maturity and strategic sobriety instead of using the language of “civilisational supremacy or national erasure”.
The ISPR further advised the Indian leadership not to push South Asia towards another crisis or war, warning that the consequences would be devastating not only for the region but beyond it as well.
It added that India needed to accept Pakistan’s importance in the region and learn to coexist peacefully. Otherwise, the ISPR warned, any attempt to target Pakistan could trigger consequences that would neither remain geographically limited nor be strategically or politically acceptable for India.
The statement also accused India of ignoring its own record in the region, alleging that New Delhi had historically acted as a sponsor of terrorism, a source of regional instability, and a practitioner of transnational assassinations and global disinformation campaigns.
According to the ISPR, India’s aggressive posture stemmed less from confidence and more from frustration over its inability to damage Pakistan, something it claimed had been exposed during “Marka-i-Haq”, referring to last year’s military escalation between the two neighbouring countries.
During an interactive session held in New Delhi on Saturday, Gen Dwivedi was asked how the Indian army would respond if circumstances similar to those leading to “Operation Sindoor” last year emerged again, according to the Press Trust of India.
The Indian army chief repeated New Delhi’s allegations linking Pakistan to terrorism — accusations Islamabad has consistently denied — and said Pakistan had “to decide whether they want to be part of geography or history or not”.
Earlier this month, Pakistan marked the first anniversary of the May 2025 conflict between Pakistan and India, which involved a four-day military escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
At a ceremony held on May 10 at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi to commemorate the occasion, Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir warned that any future “misadventure” against Pakistan would result in “extremely far-reaching and painful” consequences for the adversary.
Meanwhile, a growing number of international analysts have warned that another crisis between Pakistan and India is becoming increasingly likely and could prove far more dangerous, with limited chances for outside powers to contain the situation effectively.