Four heavily armed militants, suspected to be from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit, targeted the army’s 12th Brigade headquarters on Sunday, killing 17 jawans and leaving at least 30 army personnel injured.
Among those that were martyred, 15 jawans were from the Bihar regiment while two were from the Dogra regiment.
While political leaders across the spectrum slammed Pakistan for “aiding and abetting extremist forces”, Pakistan has denied any involvement in the dastardly attack that has inflicted the highest casualties on the Indian Army in a single militant attack.
This is how Pakistani media covered the Uri terror attack:
The News International
The News International said that Pakistani security officials were confident that the Uri attack was a “Pathankot-like stage drama to trumpet its terrorism mantra against Pakistan and counter Islamabad’s diplomatic moves to expose Indian atrocities in Kashmir at a time when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is all set to expose New Delhi at the UN General Assembly session”.
The article, written by an investigative editor Ansar Abbasi, questions the attack despite high security in the army unit.
Pakistan Observer
The Pakistan Observer reported that “four heavily-armed suspected militants” killed 17 soldiers in an army base.
Rejecting “baseless allegations” from India, the newspaper quoted Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations saying that “no infiltration is allowed from Pakistani soil because water-tight arrangements were on both sides of the LOC Working boundary all along.”
The report trashed Rajnath Singh’s allegations and said that, “Pakistan have rejected baseless Indian allegations and asked for credible information from Indian Army … “
Dawn
The front page of the Dawn newspaper too covered the attack and touted Singh’s attack on Pakistan as a “vitriolic assault.”
The newspaper also dedicated an editorial column to the Uri attack and noted that the “Indian authorities’ accusations against Pakistan has plunged Pak-India relations into a dangerous and unstable new phase.”
It also quoted Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria, who denied the Indian allegation and said, “Pakistan is always blamed for any untoward incident in India.”
Zakaria also said that on the contrary, India was involved in terrorism in Pakistan and was trying to divert the world`s attention from Kashmir.
The Express Tribune
The Express Tribune reported that the Indian officials had jumped the gun in blaming Pakistan for an attack that killed 17 of its jawans.
The newspaper also included Pakistan Defence Minister Khawja Asif’s tweet that said, “Don’t rule out inside job to malign Azadi movement by blaming Pakistan.”
The lead article also said that the “brazen militant attack near the LoC had triggered a “verbal spat” between New Delhi and Islamabad escalating the tension between the two “bitter and nuclear-armed” neighbours.
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