ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday categorically rejected Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s highly “irresponsible and gratuitous” remarks made at Vadodara, India insinuating at Pakistan’s so-called involvement in “international terrorism”.
Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar, reacted sharply to Jaishankar’s remarks in which he had stated that “India is an expert in information technology, and our neighbour is an expert in international terrorism”, and categorically rejected the remarks as highly “irresponsible and gratuitous”.
“His [Jaishankar] unfounded remarks are yet another manifestation of the Indian leaders’ obsession to concoct facts with respect to terrorism for misleading the international community, and to point fingers at neighbours in a bid to mask India’s own well-known credentials as a state-sponsor of terrorism and a serial violator of human rights,” the spokesperson said.
He added that nowhere was state terrorism more evident than in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), where over 900,000 Indian occupation forces continued to terrorise, torture, and torment innocent Kashmiris with impunity. The world is also aware of the “saffron terror” orchestrated and unleashed by the BJP-RSS zealots against Muslims in India, he added.
He stated that Pakistan’s contribution to world peace, from successful counter-terrorism operations to our role in the global fight against terrorism, was widely acknowledged by the international community.
“Pakistan is the only country that has stemmed the tide of terror directed against it from elements and states with inimical motives,” he said. In reality, he continued by saying that India had been involved in supporting terrorism against Pakistan from its own territory and from other countries in the region.
He pointed out that India’s mischievous campaign to masquerade as a “victim” of terrorism and seeking to hoodwink the world community by hypocritically leveling allegations against Pakistan was pathological.
He added that the spy, Kulbhushan Yadhav, a serving Indian navy officer and RAW operative who was involved in planning, supporting, abetting, and executing terrorist activities in Pakistan, remained a stark reminder of India’s true face of a state sponsor of terrorism.
“Pakistan calls upon the international community to hold India accountable for its patronage of terrorist entities and for instigating unrest in neighbouring countries,” the spokesperson stated.
More importantly, rather than leveling baseless allegations against Pakistan, he added that India would be well advised to abjure its policy of state terrorism in the IIOJK and against the Muslims in India, and allow the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and as per their wishes.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022