India planning military action in next 24-36 hours, will face consequences: Pakistan
Islamabad (PTI): Pakistan on Wednesday claimed it has "credible intelligence" that India is planning military action against it in the next 24-36 hours and warned New Delhi that there would be consequences.
The statement came hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told the top defence brass that the armed forces have "complete operational freedom" to decide on the mode, targets and timing of India's response to the Pahalgam terror attack, government sources said.
Tensions have risen between the two countries after the Pahalgam terror attack last week that killed 26 people. Modi had said that India will "identify, track, and punish" the terrorist and their "backers" attack and pursue the killers to the "ends of the earth", as India stepped up the diplomatic offensive against Pakistan.
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the Indian government is preparing to carry out military action against Pakistan on the basis of "baseless and concocted allegations" regarding Pakistan’s involvement in the recent terror attack in Pahalgam.
According to the statement, the minister said Pakistan had itself been a victim of terrorism and had always condemned it in all its forms and manifestations. He added that Islamabad had offered a “credible, transparent and independent” probe by a neutral commission of experts, and accused India of evading investigation and choosing a confrontational path.
Pakistan urged the international community to remain alive warning that any military adventurism by India would be “responded to assuredly and decisively” and that the “onus of any escalatory spiral and its consequences shall squarely lie with India.”
Earlier, India announced a raft of measures against Pakistan including expulsion of Pakistani military attaches, suspension of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960, revokement of all visas issued to Pakistani nationals from April 27 and immediate shutting down of the Attari land-transit post.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
