Shumaila Andleeb

ISLAMABAD, Dec 14 (APP): Pakistan on Wednesday called upon the international community and the United Nations to hold India accountable for perpetrating terrorism in Pakistan with “undeniable and indisputable” evidence available.

Minister of State (MoS) for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar at a press briefing on the dossier regarding India’s involvement in terrorism in Pakistan said repeated terror incidents reflected India’s persistent hostility and the use of terrorist proxies against Pakistan.

Khar was referring to the evidence of India’s involvement in the Johar Town blast in Lahore last year, that killed three people and injured 24 others.

The MoS said no other country had used terrorism better than India which played the victim card despite being the “biggest perpetrator of terrorism”.

She mentioned that Pakistan had submitted the Lahore blast-specific dossier with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and would soon be sharing it with the UN Secretary-General, which she said was “clear evidence of India’s planned and perpetrated attack against civilians’.

She said Pakistan condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestation and added that India as the mastermind and facilitator of the incident remained at large.

Khar said where perpetrators of terrorism were acting as victims of terrorism, she wished to talk about the economic development of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) rather than the “state-sponsored terrorism”.

She said India fits the definition of a rogue state and mentioned that the country had blocked the listing of four individuals at the UNSC.

“The more terrorism it [India] perpetrates, the more victim card it plays,” she said.

She said may it be the Samjhota train incident or blatant support to Baloch militants, India’s objective was to undermine the peace and security of Pakistan.

She mentioned that 211 individuals of law enforcement agencies suffered the RAW-sponsored attacks including the attack on Chinese nationals, at PC hotel Gwadar, and Frontier Corps camp in Punjgur.

Contrary to India, she said, Pakistan always remained at the forefront of fighting terrorism.

To a question, she dismissed the step to be called as the ‘dossier diplomacy’ and said with hard facts available about agents being caught red-handed, “I would call it an evidence-based intelligence sharing”.

Khar pointed out that India blatantly violated the human rights laws in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and continued to follow the rogue policies.

She stressed that India had “mastered” the art of using international organizations for its political gains.

To a question if she was denied meeting by a certain minister during her recent visit to Afghanistan, she dismissed such notion, saying that no such meeting was asked to be held from Pakistan’s side.

“I was very well received [in Kabul] and in the meetings, and we exactly achieved what we wanted to achieve,” he said.

Khar said she believed in “useful diplomacy without theatrics” where the focus was to protect the interests of Pakistan instead of merely countering the social media disinformation campaign.

She said on managing the border areas, Pakistan would never compromise on its red lines.

“We are in a process of engaging very deeply with all entities. Whether it is the security of diplomats or civilians, we have to make sure that such an incident never happens again as we take it very strongly and seriously,” she said.

Asked if the Foreign Office continued previous policies of the government, she said the good steps were being pursued acknowledging that “some good work was done on Islamophobia”.