Counter Indian moves 'intelligently', urges ex-ambassador

Basit says India trying to embarrass Pakistan through false flag operations

ISLAMABAD: Former High Commissioner of Pakistan to India Ambassador Abdul Basit has stressed the need to counter Indian moves to embarrass Pakistan through false flag operations and blacklist it at many international forums "intelligently".

Addressing an international conference on 'India's False Flag Operations' at a local hotel on Tuesday, the ambassador said, "India is lobbying hard and pressuring Pakistan."

Basit said India was fixated with Pakistan for all the wrong reasons.

"The current political situation in India shows that Pakistan is still a very important variable in Indian politics as the Pulwama attack was used by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress for their own political interests," said the ambassador.

On the foreign policy front, Basit said, India was trying to develop strategic partnership with US and China, as the latter's support for India would be crucial at many forums. Despite India's move towards US, it was trying to maintain its relationship with Russia at the same time, he added.



"In another context, India's agenda has been to Isolate Pakistan internationally, particularly in the Gulf region, and to isolate Pakistan not only globally but regionally as well," said the ambassador. "SAARC moot is one of the examples which was not allowed to take place in Pakistan in November 2016."

He said all these things would "definitely have some kind of impact" on Pakistan.

"It is India's interest that the Mumbai trial does not conclude as it is a good talking point for India at various International forums," he added.

Addressing the conference, keynote speaker and author of 'The Betrayal of India', Elias Davidsson said, "The Indian government has formally accused Pakistani citizens, acting on behalf of Lashkar-e-Taiba, of having carried out the massacre of more than 160 persons in Mumbai. These accusations have been promoted around the world by leading media outlets. A repeated allegation does not mean it is true.

"The present documentation shows that these accusations are unfounded, for there is no basis for the claim that any Pakistani organisation or that any Pakistani citizen was involved in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

"The phone calls between the gunmen and the handlers were not made in Urdu but in Hindi and the communications sounded very unnatural for a live conversation and the phone calls do not provide evidence that the gunmen were Pakistani.



"According to the Indian government, the gunmen in Mumbai were Pakistani citizens. Yet none of them was properly identified. It was reported in court, that the telephone connection between the handlers and the gunmen was made by International Connection Services (ICS), a private corporation registered in the State of Delaware, USA with its head office located in New Jersey.

"The phone calls displayed what appears to have been inside knowledge that only senior Indian officials could have given them in real time. This operation is a lie from A to Z to maliciously malign Pakistan internationally."

Other participants were of the view that "we are in a psychological war with India, which has social and political impacts not only on both the countries but on the region and beyond".

"Modern political India is a representation of democratic fascism. Their intention is to pressurise Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and to stall the Afghanistan reconciliation process because it is not in the geostrategic interest of India," they added.

Approximately 230 people including experts of foreign policy and representatives of public and private sector attended the conference.

Centre for Global and Strategic Studies (CGSS) President Major General (Retd) Syed Khalid Amir Jaffery HI (M), Adviser to the President of National Defence University Dr Ejaz Akram, The Daily Mail Editor-in-Chief Makhdoom Babar, CGSS Advisory Board Senior Member Tauqir Ahmed also delivered speeches during the conference.