KARACHI: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Monday described May’s brief but intense war with India as “textbook deterrence,” saying Pakistan’s military response had reinforced its role as a stabilizing force in South Asia.
India and Pakistan fought a four-day war in May 2025 following an attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan has denied involvement. The violence spiraled into the deadliest cross-border hostilities since 2019, with missile, drone and artillery exchanges killing more than 70 people before both sides agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire.
In Islamabad’s telling, it shot down at least six Indian planes during the fighting and forced New Delhi to agree to a ceasefire, which it says proved Islamabad could impose costs high enough to prevent further escalation.
“This false notion of rising India and assuming this role of a bully in South Asia was very effectively countered by Pakistan during the four-day war,” Tarar said as he addressed an event organized by a think tank in Islamabad.
“The whole world witnessed that when an aggressor resorted to unprovoked, unjustified aggression, the whole Pakistani nation came together and our response compelled the enemy not only to retreat but to request for a ceasefire so that, ladies and gentlemen, was textbook deterrence.”
