The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Sunday criticised remarks by the Indian Chief of Army Staff (COAS), saying the statement reflected a “jingoistic and myopic mindset” and warned against pushing “South Asia towards wars and crises”.

In a statement, ISPR said the Indian army chief had made a “provocative statement” during a recent interview that “Pakistan should decide if it desired to be part of geography and history”.

The military’s media wing said that, contrary to what it described as a “delusional and hallucinational belief system” and “despite the omnipresent ill wishes that prevail in Hindutva-led India”, Pakistan was already “a country of consequence at the global level, a declared nuclear power and an indelible part of South Asia’s geography and history”.

“The statement reflects that the Indian leadership has neither been able to reconcile with the very idea of Pakistan nor it has learnt the right lessons, even after the passage of eight decades,” the statement said.

ISPR said the “hubristic, jingoistic and myopic mindset” had repeatedly pushed South Asia towards wars and crises.

“Threatening a sovereign nuclear neighbour with elimination from geography is not strategic signalling or brinkmanship; it is sheer bankruptcy of cognitive capacities, madness and warmongering,” the statement said.

The military’s media wing added that any “geographic obliteration would certainly be mutual and comprehensive”.

“Responsible nuclear states reflect restraint, maturity, and strategic sobriety. They do not speak the language of civilisational supremacy or national erasure,” it said.

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The statement further said the Indian narrative ignored “India’s own historically documented record of being a harbinger of terrorism in the region, a state sponsor of terrorism, key source of regional instability, practitioner of transnational assassinations and a hotbed of disinformation campaign across the globe”.

According to ISPR, India’s “aggressive posturing” stemmed “less from confidence and more from frustration at its inability to harm Pakistan,” which has been brutally “exposed during Marka-e-Haq”.

The military’s media wing said the Indian leadership “would be well advised not to attempt to push South Asia towards another crisis or war whose consequences would only be devastating for the complete region and beyond”.

“India needs to reconcile with Pakistan’s salience and learn to peacefully co-exist with it,” the statement said.

ISPR warned that “any attempt to target Pakistan can trigger consequences that shall neither be geographically confined nor strategically or politically palatable for India”.