India must be held accountable for promoting terror: Khar

ISLAMABAD          -          Pakistan yesterday urged the world to hold India accountable for its state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan. Speaking at a news conference here, Minister of State (MoS) for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said there was an incontrovertible proof of the Indian government’s involvement in terrorism-related activities in Pakistan. MoS shared a dossier regarding India’s involvement in terrorism in Pakistan and 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 that 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 with the UN secretary general, which she said was a “clear evidence of India’s planned and perpetrated attack against civilians.” Khar said both the Samjhota Express tragedy and Kulbhushan Yadav’s detention served as a proof of Indian involvement. “Pakistan is informing the world about this issue and providing all the supporting evidence,” she added. The minister said the UN Security Council members had also received the dossier from the government. “India is persistently supporting the local terrorist groups,” she said and urged the world to castigate India for violating human rights in the occupied Kashmir. Khar said that those involved in attack on Hafiz Saeed’s residence in Johar Town, Lahore were protected by India. The country, she said, actively worked to destabilise its neighbours and routinely broke international laws. She said Pakistan suffered the most from terrorism and made sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. “The country is still engaged in the fight against terrorism and there is abundant proof that India is complicit in terrorist activities in Pakistan,” she reiterated. 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 whether its 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 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 side. “I was very well received (in Kabul) and in the meetings, and we exactly achieved our goals,” she said. Khar said she believed in “useful diplomacy without theatrics” where the focus was to protect the interests of Pakistan instead of mere 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 incidents never happen 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.” Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Dr Asad Majeed Khan briefed diplomatic missions based in Islamabad on state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan - planned, conducted and financed by India. The foreign secretary shared a dossier of Indian involvement in last year’s terrorist attack in Lahore and asked the international community to hold India accountable for its crimes.

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