Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday delivered a strong message to India, saying Pakistan would go to any extent to protect Kashmir, which he described as the country’s “jugular vein.”

Addressing a special session of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day, the prime minister said that Pakistan would respond to India “in the same language it chooses to speak.

India had suffered a humiliating defeat in last year’s Marka-e-Haq and was now resorting to terrorism through proxy groups to cover up its failure, the prime minister added.

The prime minister said that lasting peace in the region would remain elusive unless India abandoned its “sinister designs.”

Referring to the Kashmir and Palestine disputes, the prime minister said Pakistan remained firmly committed to its principled stance on both issues.

He said the solution to the Kashmir dispute lay in the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and that India had no option left but to grant the Kashmiri people their right to freedom and self-determination.

Prime Minister Sharif said the sacrifices of the Kashmiri people would not go in vain and pledged that Pakistan would continue to expose India’s false narrative on diplomatic and military fronts.

He stressed that Pakistan desired peace, but only on the basis of equality and justice.

Announcing relief measures for Kashmiris, the prime minister said the monthly stipend for refugees would be increased from Rs3,000 to Rs6,000.

He also called for the release of special endowment funds for talented students in Azad Kashmir.

He also announced the establishment of a campus of Daanish University in Muzaffarabad.

The prime minister expressed deep sorrow over the death of former Azad Kashmir president Barrister Sultan Mahmood, saying the entire Pakistani nation stood “like a rock” with their Kashmiri brothers and sisters.

He added that the Marka-e-Haq had given new momentum to the Kashmir freedom struggle and that no force could suppress it now.

Reiterating his warning to India, Prime Minister Sharif said Pakistan would give a “befitting response” on any front India chose to open and that peace in the region was impossible unless New Delhi ended its conspiracies.

The prime minister also paid tribute to the martyrs of the freedom movement and said history bore witness to the fact that Kashmiris could sacrifice their children but would never compromise on their freedom.