Undeniable evidence

That India has been sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan is no secret. Kulbhushan Jadhav is a self-speaking evidence of that dirty game being played by the arch-rival neighbour for quite a long time. There are other irrefutable proofs of India’s rogue activities that are aimed at destabilising peace in Pakistan – something that threatens regional peace and security. On Saturday, Pakistan came up with specific evidence of the hostile enemy’s involvement in financing, training and harbouring terrorists and supplying weapons to them. The evidence – contained in a dossier in the shape of copies of correspondence, bank transactions and communication intercepts – was presented at a joint press conference in Islamabad by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and military spokesperson Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar.

The dossier carries proof of 1) financial and material support being provided by India to multiple terrorist organisations, including UN-designated terrorist organisations Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Balochistan Liberation Army, and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan; 2) links with terrorists of Indian intelligence officials and consulate staff based in Afghanistan and their attempts to create a Daesh-e-Pakistan by uniting the mentioned terrorist organisations. The dossier also contains details of the various terrorist incidents in recent times carried out at the behest of RAW in Gwadar – clearly with a view to sabotaging multibillion dollar CPEC project – and various metropolitan cities including Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar.

If described in Foreign Minister Qureshi’s words, India’s ‘grand design’ has four objectives: putting obstacles to Pakistan’s progress towards peace; causing economic instability; creating chaos in society; and giving rise to political instability in the country. And despite Pakistan rather being a victim of terrorism – manifested by as many as 19,130 terrorist attacks between 2001 and 2020 and more than 83,000 casualties as well as financial losses worth $126 billion – India has been raising a hue and cry, trying to get Pakistan labeled as a terrorist state. In a clear case of the kettle calling the pot black, New Delhi moved heaven and earth to get Pakistan blacklisted by FATF, but in vain.

In occupied Kashmir as well, India has been carrying out human rights abuses of unparalleled gravity, scale and nature. Kashmiris are being subjected by the occupation forces to a range of abuses like mass killings, detentions, enforced disappearances, intimidation, rape, torture and suppression of freedom of speech. And to divert the world attention from such excesses against the civilian population, it often tries to change the news cycle by heating up the LoC. In a latest incident, last Friday, the Indian troops carried out hostilities – being described by observers as unprecedented – in an attempt to shift focus to a military “success”. At least five civilians and one soldier were martyred in AJK in unprovoked fire from across the LoC. The Indian aggression was rooted in an incident that occurred in occupied Kashmir last week when the Indian Army suffered at least four casualties at the hands of home-grown freedom fighters. Even on their own soil, the BJP-backed right-wing fanatics are known to kill Muslims and other minorities on mere suspicion of slaughtering cows.

The dossier made public by Pakistan exposes the ugly face of India that has been aiding and abetting terrorism and playing the victim card too, to hoodwink the world community. Pakistan, thus, reserves the right to defend itself and has rightly decided to share the undeniable evidence of India’s terrorist activities with the UN, the OIC, the P5 group as well as influential world capitals. The world can no more afford to ignore India’s rogue behaviour.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2020.

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