By Abdullahi Yusuf

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received a telephone call from Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Prime Minister conveyed his deep appreciation of Turkiye’s solidarity and support to Paki-stan, following India’s unprovoked act of aggression.

He shared that India’s cowardly attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity has gravely endangered peace and stability in the South Asia region, and is unacceptable.

While reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to peace in the region, the Prime Minister reiterated Pakistan’s determination to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity with full vigor and force.

The Prime Minister shared that Pakistan categorically rejected India’s efforts to falsely implicate Pakistan in the Pahalgam incident, without providing any evidence.

He said India did not respond to Pakistan’s offer of having a neutral and transparent international investigation into the incident and instead, chose the dangerous path of aggression, and irrespon-sible State behavior.

President Erdogan reaffirmed Türkiye’s solidarity with the people of Pakistan, while appreciating Pakistan’s commitment to advancing peace in South Asia.

He expressed heartfelt condolences over the loss of precious lives of Pakistani citi-zens.

President Erdogan said Turkiye supports de-escalation of the situation and is ready to play its role as a committed friend of Pakistan. He said the Turkish nation is praying for the success of Pakistan’s diplomatic initiatives.