G-20 summit: Modi accuses Pakistan of sowing terror

Modi’s remarks at the G-20 Summit were shared by India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Sarup

In a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said a single nation was fomenting terror in South Asia.

Modi’s remarks at the G-20 Summit in Hangzhou, China were shared by India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Sarup on Twitter.  “Indeed, one single nation in South Asia is spreading these agents of terror in the countries of our region,” Modi reportedly remarked.

“There are some nations that use it as an instrument of state policy,” he added. Modi went on to claim that “India has a policy of zero tolerance to terrorism,” before adding “for us a terrorist is a terrorist.”

Relations between the archrivals have worsened since the killing of a young freedom fighter Burhan Wani in a shootout in Indian-held Kashmir on July 8. Wani’s killing sparked mass protests, leaving at least 70 protesters dead and hundreds injured.

Earlier on August 12, Pakistan offered to hold discussions with India to calm unrest in Kashmir, but New Delhi turned down the offer. Modi also targeted Pakistan in his Independence Day address, saying the country would have to answer for ‘rights violations’ in Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

On September 1, army chief General Raheel Sharif told Indian prime minister and its top spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) that Pakistan’s borders were completely secure and that the country understood the conspiracies being hatched against it well.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2016.