Pakistan told India on Saturday to reflect on its own egregious behaviour marked by illegal and unilateral actions in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) instead of blaming its neighbours for the current state of bilateral relations.
Responding to media queries regarding Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar's comments accusing Pakistan of justifying terror as a policy and for the frail relations between the two countries at a recent online think-tank event, Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri rejected his “unwarranted and tendentious” remarks.
“Rather than reflecting on its own egregious behaviour marked by illegal and unilateral actions in IIOJK, gross and systematic violations of human rights of unarmed and innocent Kashmiris, unabashed anti-minority policies and actions, incessantly bellicose statements against Pakistan,” Chaudhri said.
The Indian minister had claimed during a recent online think-tank event that the Pakistani government justified using terrorism as a policy, making it very hard to conduct relations, according to a report by Indian news outlet The Print.
"We don’t have a normal visa relationship, they are very restrictive on that score. They have blocked connectivity between India and Afghanistan and from Afghanistan to India," the report quoted Jaishankar as saying.
"Normal neighbours do visas and trade, they give you connectivity and most important they don’t practice terrorism. And I think until we address that problem, this challenge of how do you have a normal relationship with this very unique neighbour is a very troubling issue for our foreign policy."
Rejecting the minister's comments, the Foreign Office said instead of focusing on its human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, India was resorting to "fabrications and baseless allegations against Pakistan".
In a statement, the spokesperson also pointed out India’s “aggressive steps in the shape of intensified violations of ceasefire along the Line of Control, India resorts to fabrications and baseless allegations” against Pakistan.
“Clearly, an acknowledged perpetrator of state-terrorism cannot masquerade as a ‘victim’ of terrorism,” Chaudhri said. “Indian sophistry and obfuscation can neither hide hard facts, nor succeed in misleading the world community.”
He said that portrayal of innocent Kashmiri youth, women and children, martyred in fake “encounters” and “cordon-and-search” operations, as terrorists to divert the world’s attention from the unacceptable actions of Indian occupation forces in IIOJK was a travesty, reflective of the moral bankruptcy of the Indian leadership.
The spokesperson said that “the so-called preachers of trade and connectivity” should also tell the world as to who was blocking regional cooperation and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) process, with its next summit pending since 2016.
“It is the RSS-BJP regime’s dangerous policies of ‘Hindutva’ and ‘Akhand Bharat’ that continue to victimise the Kashmiris in IIOJK and squeeze the space for the minorities in India on the one hand, and create problems with nearly all of India’s neighbours on the other hand. Obviously, ‘normal’ relations with its neighbours remain contingent upon India beginning to act normally.”
Nagorno Karabakh
In a separate statement, the Foreign Office categorically denied Armenian prime minister’s baseless and unwarranted comments, alleging involvement of Pakistani special forces alongside Azerbaijani army in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“We have seen the transcript of Armenian Prime Minister’s interview on 15 October with a Russian TV referring to some unsubstantiated reports alleging involvement of Pakistani special forces alongside Azerbaijani army in the ongoing conflict,” the statement read.
“We categorically reject these baseless and unwarranted comments by the Armenian Prime Minister. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has also clarified his stance on the matter stating that Azerbaijani forces are strong enough to defend their homeland and do not need the help of foreign forces.”
The Foreign Office regretted that the leadership of Armenia, was resorting to irresponsible propaganda in order to cover up its illegal actions against Azerbaijan. “It must stop,” the statement said.
The statement made it clear that Pakistan had consistently extended diplomatic, moral and political support to Azerbaijan. “Pakistan will continue to stand by the brotherly nation of Azerbaijan and support its right of self-defence against any aggression.”
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