Islamabad: Chairing a special cabinet meeting on Friday on the current high tension with India, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan wants peace in the region while standing fully prepared and united to thwart any aggression, according to an official account.

“The Cabinet joined the Prime Minister in completely rejecting the Indian claims of carrying out ‘surgical strikes’,” Sharif’s office said in a statement issued after a cabinet meeting on Friday.

It added that the country was ready “to counter any aggressive Indian designs,” but gave no further details.

The meeting followed a flareup on the Line of Control (LoC), the heavily militarised de facto border between Indian and Pakistani administered parts of disputed Kashmir region.

On Thursday, India claimed its army had carried out surgical strikes on targets inside Islamabad-administered Kashmir — a claim Pakistan dismissed as a farce and baseless fabrication.

The military here said a cross-border exchange of fire on LoC initiated by Indian troops had taken place and India deliberately tried to create “illusion” of surgical strikes.

The national broadcaster quoted Prime Minister Sharif as saying that the entire nation stands shoulder to shoulder with armed forces and “we would not allow anyone to cast an evil eye on Pakistan.”

The cabinet expressed “deep concern over the continued killings and grave human rights violations in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”

It reiterated Pakistan’s call for free, fair and impartial investigation under the UN auspces into the killings of innocent civilians.

A joint session of the two houses of the Pakistani parliament has been called next week to discuss the prevailing crisis in ties with India.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Friday decided not to attend an international judicial conference in India because of the tense situation between the two countries.

The chief justice was invited by his Indian counterpart to attend the conference to be held October 21-23.

On Wednesday, India pulled out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit scheduled to be held in November in Islamabad, thus causing its postponement which is yet to be formally announced by Nepal, current chairman of the forum.

Last week, India initiated a diplomatic drive to isolate Pakistan after blaming it for the September 18 attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir which killed 18 soldiers. Pakistan rejected the Indian allegation as baseless.

Tensions between the South Asian rivals have soared since an Indian crackdown on protests in India-administered Kashmir following the killing by Indian forces of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July.

According to reports more than hundred people have been killed in violence during the unrest in India-administered Kashmir.