LOC, Islamabad: The Pakistan Army on Saturday once again rejected Indian claims for carrying out surgical strikes, stating that no such occurrence had taken place and if any such move is made in future, it will be responded to in a befitting manner.

Briefing media men on the Line of Control (LoC) to give them a real picture about the Indian claims, Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, director-general, Inter Services Public Relations, said the Pakistan Army is fully prepared to deal with any misadventure effectively. Journalists representing international and national media organisations were given a detailed briefing by the general officer commanding of Bhimber sectors who said that no incident of physical violation of the Line of Control (LoC) had happened on the night falling between September 28 and September 29 as earlier claimed by the Indian director-general of military operations.

Meanwhile, a union representing Pakistan cinemas and film distributors has banned the screening of Indian movies across the country in the wake of rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in disputed Kashmir.

The decision follows an earlier move by the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA) to prohibit Pakistani actors and technicians from working on Bollywood sets.

The silver screen drama erupted after India claimed on Thursday it had carried out “surgical strikes” across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in the disputed territory, on alleged “terrorist” targets inside Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

“It is deeply regrettable that a film trade body, the IMPPA, has passed a resolution to ban Pakistani stars and technicians from working in India,” a statement from the Pakistan’s Film Exhibitors and Distributors group said late Friday.

“In lieu of the IMPPA decision... the majority stake holders of the [Pakistani] film industry have decided to suspend the screening of all Indian films until normalcy returns.”

Indian movies are screened in a majority of Pakistani cinemas, as filmmakers in the South Asian nation strive to revive its struggling motion picture industry.

Many Pakistani singers and film actors have been cast in Indian films in a bid to improve people-to-people contact between the rival countries.

Cinema employees in Karachi were seen removing the giant posters advertising Indian films over the weekend and replacing them with banners for Pakistani and Hollywood movies.