PM Shehbaz lauds armed forces for 'historic response' to India on first anniversary of Marka-e-Haq

The Prime Minister praised the armed forces for their “historic response” to India during the Marka-e-Haq as the country commemorated its first anniversary of the victory on Sunday.

The Prime Minister while addressing a ceremony marking the Marka-e-Haq anniversary ceremony held at the Pakistan Monument in Islamabad was also graced by the presence of President Asif Ali Zardari, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf, ministers from federal government, foreign dignitaries and family members of those who became martyrs during Marka-e-Haq and anti-terrorism struggle.

While addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister observed that last year India had levelled allegations against Pakistan following the “tragic” Pahalgam incident even when Islamabad was willing to conduct an international transparent inquiry on the issue.

But however, he stated, “Our cowardly enemy, like in the past, has imposed an unprovoked aggression against our country in the garb of darkness, attacking mosques, innocent children and people of our country”.

“Our brave forces gave historic response to cowardly enemy’s night aggression”,he said.

“When our lionhearted soldiers entered the battlefield, and our Shaheens swooped down on the enemy, the cowardly enemy was overwhelmed. Our Fatah missiles destroyed India’s air defence system,” he added.

“There was dominance of our Shaheens everywhere and wreckage of enemy aircraft on every side,” he said, adding that this forced India to seek a ceasefire within four hours of the skirmish.

Calling it a victory of Pakistan’s “national honour, principles and self-respect”, the premier declared May 10 as “Youm-e-Marka-e-Haq”, which, he said, would be observed every year with patriotism and fervour without a public holiday.