����ֱ��

PESHAWAR: Tribal elders from Pakistan’s northwestern Kurram region on Saturday called for negotiations with Afghanistan and the opening of cross-border trade routes during a consultative gathering arranged by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial administration to discuss the overall security situation in the region.

Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur has launched a series of regional jirgas, or tribal councils, to deliberate on issues affecting the province, particularly its tribal districts, amid a surge of militant violence and counter-operations by security forces. The gatherings bring together tribal elders, local lawmakers and officials to find a way out of the current security situation in the area.

The last in the series brought together influential figures from Upper, Central and Lower Kurram, a former semi-autonomous tribal area bordering Afghanistan with a long history of violent conflicts that have claimed hundreds of lives. Last year alone, tribal clashes along sectarian lines in the district persisted for months, killing more than 100 people and displacing many more.

“For a permanent solution to the problem, a powerful council comprising federal and provincial governments, security agencies and local tribal elders should be formed to hold negotiations with Afghanistan, because Kurram’s peace is linked to Afghanistan,” the jirga said in its recommendations.

“Trade routes should be opened with Afghanistan to provide employment to the area’s residents,” it added.

Much of the country’s northwestern tribal belt has a narrow economic base, historically dependent on cross-border movement. Traditionally, residents of the areas crisscrossed between what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, with tribal communities spread across both sides of the frontier.

Past efforts to launch livelihood projects in the area have also had limited impact.

Participants of Saturday’s jirga expressed appreciation for the provincial government’s efforts to restore stability in Kurram.

They said the residents of the district were united for peace and pledged to assist the government in any way necessary to maintain it.

“Peace is our basic need,” the jirga statement said. “If there is peace, there will be development.”

It added the people of Kurram opposed “all forms of terrorism” and stood by the government in efforts to counter it.

The gathering was also attended by provincial and national legislators from the district along with administrative and law enforcement officials.

ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Saturday rejected the Indian air chief’s assertion his country shot down six Pakistani military aircraft during a standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbors, saying no Pakistani aircraft was hit and adding that wars are won through professional competence, not fabrications.

Indian Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh told a gathering in New Delhi earlier today his country had downed five Pakistani fighter jets and one large surveillance plane in “the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill” at a range of 300 kilometers. Singh’s assertion was the first such statement by India months after its worst military conflict in decades with its neighbor.

India targeted what it called “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan earlier this year in May, calling it Operation Sindoor and saying it was in response to a gun attack in Indian-administered Kashmir which it blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad denied any involvement and called for an impartial international probe into the incident.

Pakistan said during the intense, four-day standoff it had shot down six Indian fighter jets, including French-made Rafales, right at the outset of the war. It also gave a technical briefing to the foreign media on how the situation unfolded at the outset of the conflict.

“Not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed by Indian,” the minister said in a social media post on X. “Pakistan destroyed 6 Indian jets, S400 air defense batteries and unmanned aircraft of India while swiftly putting several Indian air bases out of action.”

He called it ironic that senior Indian military officials were “used as the faces of monumental failure caused by strategic shortsightedness of Indian politicians,” pointing out that for three months, no such claims were voiced by New Delhi.

He said if the truth was in question, both sides should open their aircraft inventories to independent verification.

“Wars are not won by falsehoods but by moral authority, national resolve and professional competence,” the minister said. “Such comical narratives, crafted for domestic political expediency, increase the grave risks of strategic miscalculation in a nuclearised environment.”

Asif warned that, as demonstrated during his country’s response to India, every violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would invite a “swift, surefire and proportionate response,” adding that responsibility for any ensuing escalation would rest entirely with “strategically blind leaders who gamble with South Asia’s peace for fleeting political gains.”

India has previously acknowledged some losses, with its Chief of Defense Staff Anil Chauhan saying in an interview with Bloomberg that his forces had made a “tactical mistake” during the May conflict, but denying that six aircraft were lost.

Responding to a question, Chauhan said it was not important how many Indian planes were downed in the war.

“The good part is we were able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets, again targeting at long range,” he said.

Separately, France’s air chief, General Jerome Bellanger, has said he has seen evidence of the loss of three Indian fighters, including a Rafale.

The Indian Air Force has not commented on the claims.

With input from Reuters