FO rejects Indian minister's 'irresponsible' remarks against Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan categorically rejected on Monday Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s recent remarks insinuating Pakistan is involved in terrorism.

In a statement, the Foreign Office called Jaishankar’s remarks "highly irresponsible and gratuitous”.

The Indian external affairs minister, at an event in Vadodara, India, had said "no other country practices terrorism in the manner in which Pakistan has done", as per Indian media reports.

"You show me anywhere in the world what Pakistan has done for so many years against India,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

“Instead of leveling baseless allegations against Pakistan, India is well advised to abjure its policy of state terrorism in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and against the Muslims in India,” the FO statement read.

The FO urged India to 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.

“The Indian EAM’s unfounded remarks are yet another manifestation of the Indian leaders’ obsession to concoct facts with respect to terrorism for misleading the international community and 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,” it said.

“Nowhere is state terrorism more evident than in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK), where over 900,000 Indian occupation forces continue to terrorize, torture, and torment innocent Kashmiris with impunity,” the FO stressed. “The world is also aware of the ‘saffron terror’ orchestrated and unleashed by the BJP-RSS zealots against Muslims in India.”

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, the FO said.

“Pakistan is the only country that has stemmed the tide of terror directed against it from elements and states with inimical motives,” the statement concluded. “In reality, India has been involved in supporting terrorism against Pakistan from its own territory and from other countries in the region”.

India’s mischievous campaign to masquerade as a ‘victim’ of terrorism and seek to hoodwink the world community by hypocritically leveling allegations against Pakistan is pathological, the statement read, adding that spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, a serving Indian navy officer and RAW operative who was involved in planning, supporting, abetting and executing terrorist activities in Pakistan, remains a stark reminder of India’s true face of a state sponsor of terrorism.

Pakistan called upon the international community to hold India accountable for its patronage of terrorist entities and for instigating unrest in neighboring countries.