At a rally, Modi said of his response to Abhinandan's capture that Pakistan knew there would be 'a night of slaughter' if it didn't return the pilot. But at the time, MEA had dismissed talk of Indian threats as 'Pakistani propaganda'

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that it cannot comment on a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally in which he quoted an “American official” as having said India has put missiles on standby.

On April 21, Modi had raised the issue of the government’s response to the Pulwama terror attack with airstrikes on Balakot. The day after Balakot, Pakistan had retaliated with airstrikes in Kashmir and an Indian Air Force pilot was captured in the resulting dog fight.

According to per the PTI report, Modi said, “We conducted a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world that Modi did this to you.”

He then claimed that “a senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept ready 12 missiles and might attack and the situation will deteriorate”.

“Pakistan announced it would return the pilot on the second day, else it was going to be a qatal ki raat (night of slaughter),” he added.

Thereafter, as per the PTI report, Modi stated, “This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come.”

At a special briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday, a question was asked to clarify India’s position on the prime minister’s remarks at the election rally. “These are operational details. Please contact the relevant ministries,” replied MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.

Factually, the only statement that India officially made to the press on February 27 was by the MEA spokesperson.

“In this engagement, we have unfortunately lost one MiG 21. The pilot is missing in action. Pakistan has claimed that he is in their custody. We are ascertaining the facts,” said Kumar as part of the two paragraph statement on Pakistan’s retaliatory airstrikes. This was the only reference made to Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman at a media event called by MEA.

Later that evening, MEA issued a press release at around 6:45 pm; though this was not a “press conference”, the language used was somewhat open-ended and threatening:

“India also strongly objected to Pakistan’s vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force in violation of all norms of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention. It was made clear that Pakistan would be well advised to ensure that no harm comes to the Indian defence personnel in its custody. India also expects his immediate and safe return,” said the MEA press release dated February 27.

However, with the wing commander still in custody overnight, Indian high-level official sources were keen to communicate on February 28 that Pakistan was spreading disinformation by claiming India had adopted an aggressive military posture and was even considering missile attacks.

Sources, which have been quoted in various media outlets, had stated that the Pakistani foreign office had called Western diplomats in Islamabad for a briefing on the night of February 27. The Western countries had conveyed to India that Pakistan was claiming that India was ready to conduct missile strikes.

This claim by Pakistan was also mentioned by Prime Minister Imran Khan in his speech at the national assembly on February 28 afternoon. It was during that speech that he announced that the Indian pilot would be released.

The claims by Pakistan – of missiles on standby and a submarine patrol – were dismissed outright by Indian sources as efforts by Pakistan to spread disinformation to the international community.

As The Wire reported, “Indian government sources strenuously denied these claims, calling them “manufactured news” by Pakistan to create a “war psychosis”. ANI reported that sources said that Pakistan “was lying that India moved naval ships to launch missile strikes”.

The Hindu article dated February 28 also stated: “The sources blamed a ‘war psychosis’ whipped up by Pakistan on Wednesday, with its officials warning the international community of a “massive Indian missile strike” in response to the Wednesday attacks by Pakistan, despite the government making it clear it would not escalate the situation.”

In an article published on March 17, Reuters claimed, based on an unnamed Western diplomat and Pakistani minister, that India had threatened to fire at least six missiles. The news agency later stated that India had denied “holding out a missile threat”.

It is not clear which “American official” the prime minister was referring to his in April 21 speech, as no US official has made any public statement on this matter.

However, by quoting in a positive manner something that India had been at pains to deny, Modi has placed himself at variance from the official Indian position on the “missile threat”.