Pakistan has failed to recover from the jolt it received when India abrogated Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Latest in the list of empty threats from Pakistan is a statement by country’s Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who said that any attack by New Delhi on Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) will be a declaration of war.

Addressing a gathering, Pakistan’s Railway minister said that any attack on PoK will result in a war, adding that the war would not be one between just India and Pakistan but will encompass the whole of the Indian subcontinent.

In an aggressive speech, Ahmad said that any attack in PoK would “change the map of the subcontinent”.

Notably, Pakistan has approached all major world powers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government’s move to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir. The neighbour even moved the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with the help of its all-weather ally China.

However, Pakistan’s plea was turned down by all major countries like the US, Russia, among others, who maintained that Jammu and Kashmir was an internal matter of India. Russia even released a statement saying the move on Article 370 was in accordance with the framework of the Indian Constitution.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a recent interview with Khaleej Times, said that it was the special status of Jammu and Kashmir that kept the region underdeveloped and served the “vested interests of a few”.

He said that it was because of the “isolation” of the region that youth were misguided and even radicalised by anti-India elements.

Terming the move by the central government as “internal steps”, Prime Minister Modi said that the government took the decision in a “completely democratic, open, transparent and Constitutional manner”.

The announcement on abrogation of Article 370 was made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha.