Pakistan confirms suspension of US military training prog

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has confirmed that the US has suspended the coveted military training programme for Islamabad as earlier reported by a foreign news agency earlier this month.

When sought update on the assistance by the United States, the Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Faisal said all security assistance had been suspended and the particular training programme – International Military Education Training (IMET) – for Pakistani military officers was also affected by this.

“India should grow up and stop blaming Pakistan for everything,” the spokesman added.

Also read: Russia steps in as Trump cuts Pakistan military training prog

Responding to reports of India accusing Pakistan of backing the recent Khalistan movement in Canada, the Spokesman said, India would benefit more by putting its own house in order and addressing the atrocious maltreatment of Indian minorities rather than attacking the imaginary shadows”.

“Whether it is a flood or a plague, India puts a blame on ISI (Inter Services Intelligence),” he said, and added that this practice was nothing new and Pakistan passed through this experience for long in the past as well.

The Spokesman said the tendency of Indian media to make false allegations against Pakistan could only be considered “elusive”.

“Instead, India should immediately halt its continuing atrocities in IOK where curfews and suspended communication are a norm and innocent Kashmiri women are harassed and raped with impunity in the guise of search and cordon operations,” he said.

To a question of Indian claim of over 1,400 ceasefire violations at border by Pakistan, he said in fact the 30 persons were martyred and 120 injured at Pakistani side.

He mentioned that the report of UN’s Office of High Commission on Human Rights was a clear manifestation on Indian violations and urged upon India to let the Inquiry Commission monitor the ceasefire violations.

He said it was a standard practice of the Pakistan’s Foreign Office to share with UN Security Council the data on ceasefire violations by India every December.

On reports of alleged involvement of Pakistanis in the Ghazni attack in Afghanistan, the Spokesman said, “We have not received any evidence to back up the spurious accusations and we reject these baseless allegations”.

Regarding the ceasefire at Pak-Afghan border, he said Pakistan repeatedly called for pursuing an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process, seeking a political solution to the issue.

He said the fencing of Pak-Afghan border would take over two years to complete and added that Pakistan was fencing the border with the objective of regulating the movement of men and material as part of the country’s counter-terrorism efforts for long-term regional stability.

On repatriation of Afghan refugees, he said a delegation from the Afghan government would soon visit Islamabad to work out the details.

On the much-delayed SAARC summit for over two years, he said Pakistan was ready to host the summit for the progress on regional matters.

About the attack on Pakistani student in Australia, he said the Foreign Office was in touch with the Australian High Commission in Islamabad regarding the well-being of the assailed student and a strong protest was also registered over the incident.