India and Its Military Acknowledged Defeat, Says Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif
"The US president has said it 11 times and counted the aircraft 70 times, mentioning how many we shot down," the defence minister claimed.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that India and its military acknowledged the outcome of the latest military confrontation with Pakistan, describing it as an unprecedented achievement for the country.
Addressing a ceremony in Sialkot, the defence minister said Pakistan had defeated an adversary five times its size, claiming that unlike previous wars between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, there was no ambiguity about the outcome of the latest conflict.
“We defeated an enemy five times bigger than us. Wars were fought before, but there was always some ambiguity. This was the first war with India in which there was no ambiguity. India itself acknowledged it, and its military acknowledged it. This is a great honour for Pakistan,” he said.
Khawaja Asif also referred to US President Donald Trump’s repeated statements about the military confrontation, saying the American president had mentioned the conflict on 11 occasions and repeatedly referred to the number of aircraft shot down.
“The US president has said it 11 times and counted the aircraft 70 times, mentioning how many we shot down,” the defence minister claimed.
He credited Field Marshal Asim Munir’s leadership for Pakistan’s growing diplomatic influence, saying the country continued to achieve successes on the international stage.
“Under the leadership of the Field Marshal, diplomatic successes are continuing,” he said.
The defence minister maintained that Pakistan had also delivered an important message to Muslim countries about the presence of foreign military bases in the region.
“We have shown Islamic countries a path, that overseas military bases were not established for your protection; they were established to protect Israel,” Khawaja Asif said.
Reflecting on Pakistan’s international standing, he said the country’s current diplomatic position was a matter of national pride.
Turning to domestic politics, Khawaja Asif criticised the practice of political victimisation, saying successive governments had used arrests and imprisonment against political opponents.
He recalled being imprisoned at Attock Fort during former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s government and said he had been jailed four times during his political career.
The defence minister also referred to his detention by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during the PTI government in 2020, saying he spent six months in custody without being clearly informed of the charges against him.
“I kept asking NAB officials what the charge against me was, but those who imprisoned me could not even tell me,” he said.
He criticised the tendency of political governments to arrest opponents before determining the allegations against them.
“When political governments want to arrest someone, they arrest them first and then think about what charges to bring,” he remarked.
Khawaja Asif stressed that political revenge had never served Pakistan’s national interests.
Referring to his recent interaction with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the National Assembly, the defence minister said he had met him two days earlier and felt that the veteran politician still possessed some political energy.
Reflecting on his own career, Asif said he entered politics in 1991 and had witnessed numerous political challenges and setbacks over the decades.
He described Sialkot as his identity and said serving its people remained his responsibility, although he admitted that the demands of political life sometimes left him feeling exhausted.