NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said there was no possibility of Pakistan winning any war against India in his ‘lifetime’.
“There is no scope of Pakistan winning any such war in my lifetime,” he told reporters in New Delhi, reported Press Trust of India.
He was reacting to a reported statement of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that Kashmir is a flashpoint which ‘can trigger a fourth war’ with India.
The reported Nawaz statement has since been denied. Nawaz Sharif’s office said he had never ‘uttered these words’ in his address to Azad Jammu Kashmir Council and described the report as “baseless, incorrect and based on malafide intentions”.
His office also said that Nawaz Sharif was of the opinion that any issue of conflict between Pakistan and India has to be resolved through peaceful means.
Meanwhile, Indian minister Farooq Abdullah said he did not see India and Pakistan going to a war with each other ever again. “I don’t feel there is a threat of a fourth war,” he told reporters. Reacting to PM Nawaz Sharif’s statement, Abdullah said such statements are issued for public posturing. “He (Sharif) has to run a government and he has to say things by which he can keep his people with him. One should not be afraid of such things,” he said.
Abdullah, however, said Kashmir is an issue, which needs to be resolved through dialogue between India and Pakistan. “Kashmir is an issue and we are reiterating that this issue needs to be resolved through dialogue... the dialogue should take place and we need to move forward fast so that this problem is resolved and the friendship between the two countries gets strengthened,” he said.