Pakistan’s President had called an emergency joint session of the National Assembly today following India’s move to revoke Article 370, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status

Islamabad: On a day when Parliament of India passed legislation that divides the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, Pakistan PM Imran Khan warned that such moves were bound to lead to incidents like the one in Pulwama. Khan was reacting to Indian government’s move to abrogate Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

By Pulwama, the Pakistan PM was referring to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14 this year in which at least 40 troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed by a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) suicide bomber.

On February 27, the Indian Air Force had carried out air strikes on a JeM terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan, killing more than 250 terrorists and their handlers.

With an approach like this, "incidents like Pulwama are bound to happen again", the Pakistani PM reportedly said in Parliament.

"I can already predict this will happen. They will attempt to place the blame on us again. They may strike us again, and we will strike back. What will happen then? They will attack us and we will respond and the war can go both ways... But if we fight a war till we shed the last drop of our blood, who will win that war? No one will win it and it will have grievous consequences for the entire world. This is not nuclear blackmail," he added.

Pakistan’s President had called an emergency joint session of the National Assembly today following India’s move to revoke Article 370, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.

Addressing the session, Khan said his priority was to have better ties with all of Pakistan's neighbours.

"When we took up the government, our main priority was to address poverty in our country. We reached out to all our neighbours because without having a semblance of normalcy in ties, we cannot attain stability and alleviate poverty."

"I talked to India, telling them if you take one step towards us, we will come two steps towards you. When I first reached out to India, they expressed concerns that there were militant outfits operating from Pakistan. I told (PM Narendra) Modi that after the grave and painful tragedy of the Army Public School massacre, all our political parties had resolved to never let the territory of Pakistan be used for terrorist activities. But I got the feeling that the Indian side was not serious about talks. When we went to Bishkek, my suspicions regarding their unwillingness to speak was strengthened," Khan said.

"I soon realised that India was not interested in talking to us. They took our overtures for peace as weakness, so we stopped extending offers to hold talks. Then Pulwama happened,” he added.

Referring to the developments of Monday and Tuesday, Khan said: "We want the global leadership to take note. My party and I are taking the responsibility to approach the leaders of the world and apprise them of what is happening in Kashmir.”

Khan told the Joint Session that his government will take the case of Kashmir to the United Nations as well.