Islamabad, September 24

Pakistan on Tuesday rejected as “completely baseless” the Indian Army chief’s statement on the reactivation of terror camp in Balakot that was destroyed by the Indian armed forces through a surgical strike earlier this year.

Army chief General Bipin Rawat in Chennai on Monday said that Pakistan had reactivated the Balakot terror camp recently and about 500 infiltrators were waiting to sneak into India.

The response to the terror camp getting functional again might go beyond India’s previous response by way of an air strike in February, he told reporters at the Officers Training Academy in the Tamil Nadu capital.

The Indian Army chief’s statement on the reactivation of terror camp in Balakot is “completely baseless”, the Foreign Office said in a statement.

The allegation of “infiltration” from Pakistan reflected “a desperate attempt” by India to divert international attention from the “humanitarian crisis” in Jammu and Kashmir, it said, adding that New Delhi would not “succeed in misleading the world community through these diversionary tactics”.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India on August 5 revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into union territories. PTI