US asked to consider rights abuses in Modi’s India before lecturing Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday took strong exception to a joint statement issued after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with US President Joe Biden in which Islamabad was asked to take action against extremist groups.

Indian PM Modi is on a state visit to the US, during which he held a one-on-one meeting with the US president and resolved to strengthen bilateral ties.

The White House issued a 58-point statement earlier today, saying the United States and India "stand together" to counter global terrorism and unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations.

"President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qa’ida, Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen," it said.

“They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks. They called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice.”

In a strongly worded statement, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif slammed Washington's ignorance towards rights abuses in India. He asked President Biden to consider these facts before giving a red carpet welcome to the "Butcher of Gujarat" again in his country.

"The irony of this statement coming during the visit of someone who was banned entry to the US for overseeing a pogrom of Muslims when he was CM Gujarat," the defence minister tweeted.

He said that Modi is leading yet another campaign of state-sponsored terrorism in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu Kashmir (IIOJK), which includes routinely maiming and blinding the local population.

"Across the rest of the country, Modi's acolytes lynch Muslims, Christians, and other minorities, with impunity."

Khawaja Asif said that Pakistan has lost countless lives and has been continuously at war with terrorism for decades, owing to failed American interventions in the region.

"Perhaps Pres. Biden should consider these facts the next time he fetes the Butcher of Gujarat," the defence minister concluded.