ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday said it was not involved in exporting terror or conspiring against any other country including India.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria, in a weekly briefing, said Pakistan would not allow anyone to use its soil against any other country. He rejected Indian claims of arresting an alleged Pakistani, Bahadur Ali, for intruding in Indian-held Kashmir.
India summoned Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi this week to protest against what it said was the ‘continued infiltration of militants’ from across the border, an allegation denied by Islamabad.
India’s external affairs ministry said ‘an arrested Pakistani national’ Bahadur Ali had confessed that he was “infiltrated into India” after being trained by the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
Pakistan quickly rejected the Indian allegation, saying it was committed not to allow the use of its territory for any militant activity against anyone. Still, the ministry said it would gather details to establish the veracity of India’s claim.
However, Zakaria said Indian involvement in terrorist activities on Pakistani soil could not be ruled out and the confessional statement of India’s serving naval officer Kulbhushan Yadav had vindicated Pakistan’s stance in this regard.
“The Indian intelligence agencies have remained involved in subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan and Karachi,” he said.
He added: “The confessional statement by the serving naval officer who was apprehended by our law-enforcement agencies has indeed vindicated Pakistan’s claim. The confession has led to significant success in rounding up elements of the network.”
Zakaria said the investigations were continuing. “Involvement of foreign elements working in cohorts with their local contacts in the condemnable terrorists attack in Quetta which took a huge toll of lives of innocent people, cannot be ruled out,” he maintained.
The Indian government admits that Yadav, who was arrested in Balochistan earlier this year over charges of spying for the Research and Analysis Wing, is a former naval officer.
Zakaria said: “The confession of Kulbhushan Yadav, I would like you to revisit what he said. I think his statement was six to eight minutes long. You can just go back and replay it. And our authorities – the government of Pakistan authorities – have also elaborated on this point: the foreign hand and the foreign soil which are being used to perpetrate terrorist activities in Pakistan.”
He said it was not just Pakistani agencies or government or the authorities who had asserted this thing. “I have said this in the past also: we have on record statements made by foreign countries, very high officials who have said that our neighbour has been financing instability, to cause instability in Pakistan from the soil of another neighbour,” he remarked.
Expressing concerns over human rights violations in Held Kashmir, the spokesman urged the international community to raise its voice against blatant human rights violations in the held valley. There should not be any impunity for the human rights violations.
He said Pakistan had condemned the Indian atrocities at the highest level and also asked the UN Human Rights Commission to send a fact finding mission to the occupied Kashmir.
He noted that several countries including United States, China, Turkey and Azerbaijan as well as human rights organizations and the Non-Governmental Organisations had expressed their serious concerns over the situation in Kashmir. He said Pakistan was also concerned over huge presence of Indian forces in Kashmir.
Asked about the hostile statements being made by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani against Pakistan, Nafees Zakaria said: “These are not helpful.”
He pointed out that Pakistan had the largest border with Afghanistan and it has hosted the Afghan refugees for about 35 years. He said Pakistan had tried and will continue to have the best of relations with the neighbouring countries especially Afghanistan.
He said Pakistan supported intra-Afghan peace and reconciliation process as peace in Afghanistan in fact is in the interest of Pakistan.
About the Pakistani helicopter, that crashed in Afghanistan, the spokesman said the Afghan authorities had “assured us that it will take all necessary steps to ensure safe recovery of the crew members.”