Islamabad, November 2

Pakistan had “readied” its battle plans after “threats from India”, the country’s air force chief said on Thursday and warned the neighbour against “acts of aggression”, as tensions escalate in the Indian sub-continent.Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman said Pakistan was “not worried about India at all”, while he spoke at 9th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS).”India should show restraint and instead solve the issue of Kashmir as that would be better for them,” he was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.He is quoted to have said Pakistan could not ignore this kind of pressure. “We are well capable of responding in the face of any aggression,” he said.India launched a counter-offensive against Pakistan on Wednesday, a day after terrorists killed three Indian soldiers  — beheading one of them — under Pakistan’s army cover fire in a gun battle in Kashmir’s Machil sector.Pakistan claimed on Wednesday that Indian forces had hit a passenger bus in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, killing nine and wounding as many people.The country also claimed it had killed seven Indian soldiers after its neighbour had “opened fire” along the Line of Control, killing three of Pakistan’s soldiers. Pakistan’s soldiers continued to shell Indian outposts, injuring six jawans.Pakistan’s Prime Minister has said the country would not tolerate “deliberate targeting” of innocent civilians, particularly children and women, ambulances and civilian transport.”Pakistan has exercised maximum restraint despite continuing ceasefire violations from Indian security forces along LoC,” he said on Thursday. The International Border and the Line of Control has been fraught with tensions since Indian Army conducted a military strike that targeted terrorist 6-7 launch pads across the border in Pakistan’s territory on September 29. The attack came 10 days after a terrorist strike on a military camp in north Kashmir’s Uri. Nineteen indian soldiers were killed in the attack.Although Pakistan has since denied such a strike, there have heavy cross-border firing and shelling since. India has accused Pakistan of having violated a truce agreement of 2003 several times in the past two months.India has long accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorist camps, a charge the neighbour has repeated denied. — PTI