Bland denials cannot change facts, Pakistan tells India

Slams Indian MEA’s denial of dossier containing evidence of India's sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan categorically rejected on Monday the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ denial of the irrefutable evidence provided by Pakistan on Indian state sponsorship of terrorism.

“Fully exposed, India has typically resorted to sophistry, obfuscation and re-fabrication. Bland denials and regurgitation of old litany of charges, however, will not change facts,” read a statement issued by Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) maintained that the dossier presented by Pakistan extensively documented India’s active planning, promoting, aiding, abetting, financing and execution of terrorist activities against Pakistan.

It observed that Pakistan had faced more than 19,000 terrorist attacks on its soil and suffered 83,000 causalities since 2001. “The direct economic losses have been upward of US $126 billion. As a result of India’s sponsorship of terrorism, from across our borders, Pakistan continues to suffer immensely,” the FO observed.

Meanwhile, India has mischievously masqueraded as a ‘victim’ of terrorism and sought to mislead the international community by hypocritically levelling terrorism-related allegations against Pakistan, maintained the FO.

“It has also conducted false flag operations in IIOJK and inside India to malign Pakistan. That façade has now been removed and the world can see the real face of India – one blackened by its decades-long state-terrorism in IIOJK and state-sponsored terrorism and destabilization efforts in Pakistan,” the ministry further stated.

The foreign affairs ministry added that the most familiar and undeniable face of India’s state-sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan was Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav -- caught red-handed in March 2016. “His complicity in subversion, sabotage and terrorism in Pakistan is part of the incontrovertible evidence against India,” the ministry observed.

The world is also familiar with “saffron terror” orchestrated and unleashed by the RSS-BJP zealots against Muslims in India and against Pakistan, added the MoFA.

“Masterminds of Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Dargah, and Samjhota Express terrorist cases, like Swami Aseemanand, have been granted full state protection and acquitted in complete travesty of justice after having confessed to India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA),” the ministry’s statement further read.

The FO also slammed Indian civilian and military leaders’ open threats to Pakistan, India’s sinister design to subvert China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and public statements by noted Indian politicians and senior security officials on ‘teaching Pakistan’ a lesson through use of terrorism. The ministry observed that these actions constituted further incriminating evidence.

According to the MoFA, “The presence of ISIL and AQIS in India as highlighted in recent UN reports indicate that India is emerging as a hotbed of UN designated international terrorist organizations and posing a great risk to the region.”

Furthermore, the ministry observed that the “Recent revelations by FINCEN files illustrate how India uses its financial system for money laundering and other illegal activities such as terrorism financing -- brazenly and with impunity”.

The foreign affairs ministry maintained that, “Use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy by India makes it culpable under international law, UN sanctions regime, and international counter-terrorism conventions.”

It reminded the world community that it was its collective responsibility to hold India to account and take practical steps to proceed against the Indian nationals involved in patronage of terrorist entities

“We also expect the UN counter-terrorism bodies to proceed on the basis of concrete evidence provided by Pakistan and urge India to renounce use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. The UN must also play its part in dismantling of the Indian terrorist infrastructure, details of which have been provided in the Dossier,” the ministry concluded.