'Indian officials didn't join other diplomats at LoC'

Pakistan said that diplomats from various foreign missions were visiting the region

Pakistan on Tuesday said that Indian officials did not join a handful of foreign diplomats visiting the sectors along the Line of Control, where the Indian Army has destroyed three terror camps.

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Sunday that six to 10 Pakistan Army personnel were killed and three terror camps destroyed in retaliatory action by the Indian Army opposite the Tangdhar and Keran sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said another terror camp was severely damaged in the action by the Indian forces and the retaliation had caused substantial harm to the terror infrastructure across the Line of Control (LoC).

Pakistan military on Sunday said that India is welcome to take any foreign diplomat or media to the site of alleged terror camps to "prove" its claim on the ground.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that diplomats from various foreign missions in Islamabad were visiting Jura and Shahkot sectors.

"The Indian side has not joined us in the visit to the LoC neither have they provided coordinates of the alleged ‘launch pads’," Faisal tweeted.

He said that "claims by Indian Army chief remain just that: ‘claims’."

Faisal is also accompanying the diplomatic corps to the LoC.

The numbers and nationalities of the foreign diplomats visiting the LoC was not shared.

Director General (DG) Army's media wing Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said, "What good Indian High Commission is which can’t stand with its Army Chief? Indian High Commission staff didn’t have the moral courage to accompany fellow diplomats in Pakistan to the LOC," he said.

"It is a challenge by Pakistan to India that the way diplomats and media visited the places, India should arrange a similar one-day visit to Kashmir and on their side of the LoC," Ghafoor told media.

Briefing the diplomats and media, he claimed that 58 civilians were killed and 319 injured in 3,038 Indian ceasefire violations in 2018.

"So far in 2019, there have been 2,608 ceasefire violations which have killed 44 civilians and injured 230 others," Ghafoor said.