Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Wednesday stated that reports about her country's army killing 2 Indian soldiers along the Line of Control and mutilating the body of one were inaccurate.
In an interview to television channel CNN-IBN, Khar said: "We have enquired into this and we are saying that an incident like this did not take place. But if our enquiry is not good enough, we can ask the UN to do the enquiry."
Here's the transcript of the interview:
On Pakistan army troops killing and mutilating bodies of 2 Indian soldiers on LOC
"The government has already given its response and we are a bit appalled at some of the statements that are coming in from India because the government has absolutely rejected that any such incident took place.
Let me assure you that it is not up to the government of Pakistan to not observe the ceasefire on the LoC and not to go through the mechanism, which is already existing to normalise relations between the 2 governments.
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'We respect the 2003 ceasefire and have a long history of respecting it'
I am a bit saddened because this is the government I represent of the Pakistan's People Party which has invested 4 years of building normalcy and an environment of moving forward to achieve regional peace and internal stability between the 2 countries.
So let me tell you that on behalf of the Pakistan government that incident did not happen. We are so sure of this and are ready to ask a third party to do an investigation on this."
On Pakistan not calling a full enquiry
"We are calling a full enquiry and we have enquired into this. We are saying that an incident like this did not take place, but if our enquiry is not good enough we can ask the UN to do the enquiry. So we feel this is not the road to take this between the 2 countries. This is the extreme end of the government's policy. We want to respect the ceasefire of 2003 and we have a long history of respecting it."
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'It is not Pakistan's policy to do tit for tat'
On Pakistan's constant denial of Indian soldiers being mutilated
"Making allegations like this is absolutely unacceptable. This is in any way not a policy to pursue vis-a-vis India or any other country. We have investigated into the matter to see if any incident like this took place or not.
If we are sure that an incident like this did not take place then we can do 10 more investigations in which we can take 10 days, if that satisfies anyone. But we are offering even more -- we are saying let UN investigate this matter and if an incident like this did take place then we need to deal with it with the existing mechanism as they exist.
You know an incident of the same nature, which is a bit ironical, that which is being claimed today took place 3 days back where one of our soldiers was murdered. I say that we need to grow up and allow me to say this that it is not Pakistan's policy to do tit for tat. We think we are a responsible country and India is a responsible country."
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'We need to work together for a mutual benefit'
On Indian army believing the 2 soldiers being killed brutally by Pakistan army
"Since it happened in your territory, I think your army needs to do an investigation into this and find out what actually happened.
I think we can do both our own investigations and assist each other in finding out what really happened. But we should not allow these things to completely derail (the talks), but just create more hostility and almost appear to the world that we are a country that is back to taking a go at each other. That's not that we work for. We need to work together for a mutual benefit."
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