ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday categorically rejected the Indian external affairs ministry's 'gratuitous' statement about the killing of a member of the Ahmadi community in Peshawar and state of minorities. As a perpetrator of unabated state-terrorism in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and systemic state-sponsored discrimination against its own minorities, Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said India was in no position to pontificate on the issue of terrorism or minority rights elsewhere.

"Regurgitation of fabricated accusations by India does not turn a falsehood into truth. Such desperate attempts will not succeed in diverting attention from India's domestic and foreign policy failures. If anything, these will further undermine India's credibility as a responsible country," he said. He added that India must eschew the use of state-terrorism as an instrument of state policy, end its egregious violations of human rights of the Kashmiri people in the IIOJK, resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute according to the UN Security Council resolutions, and take concrete steps to safeguard the minorities including their right to life and protection of their places of worship.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020