Pakistan rubbishes India’s MEA remarks about Afghan envoy's daughter episode

Unfortunate that New Delhi used such an incident to peddle false narrative against Islamabad, says FO spokesperson

Pakistan on Thursday denounced the "gratuitous and unwarranted" remarks by the Spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about the recent incident involving the daughter of Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Najibullah Alikhil and urged New Delhi to refrain from its smear propaganda campaign.

Selsela Alikhil, the daughter of Afghanistan's envoy, was allegedly kidnapped on Saturday and held for several hours by unknown assailants who left her with injuries and rope marks.

Prime Minister Imran Khan directed Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed to utilise all resources to apprehend the people involved in kidnapping within 48 hours.

A day later, Afghanistan decided to withdraw its ambassador and senior diplomats from Pakistan, a move that Islamabad termed as "unfortunate and regrettable".

On Thursday, India described the abduction as a “very shocking” incident and said Pakistan is “stooping to a new low” with its denial of the victim’s account.

Read more: Afghan envoy’s daughter abducted for ‘hours’

“India has no locus standi, whatsoever, on the matter,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said while responding to media queries regarding the remarks made by the Spokesperson of Indian MEA about the incident.

He said that India’s malicious smear campaign against Pakistan is well-known and independent organisations including EU DisinfoLab had established India’s credentials as a purveyor of anti-Pakistan propaganda globally.

Even in the wake of the reported incident involving the daughter of the Afghan ambassador, the FO spokesperson said that Indian propaganda machinery against Pakistan was active and fake pictures of the ambassador’s daughter were being circulated by Indian Twitter handles and websites.

Also read: Kabul recalls envoy over ‘security threats’

“It is unfortunate that India used such an incident to peddle false narrative against Pakistan,” he added.

The spokesperson said that the only domains where India had set standards were state-sponsored terrorism, illegal occupation, disregard of UN resolutions, mass murders and repression against women in the territory under its illegal occupation, political violence against minorities, and running organised fake propaganda networks around the world; and was, therefore, in no position to pontificate on "standards" for other countries.

“While calling upon India to refrain from its smear propaganda campaign against Pakistan, we remain determined to push back against unabated Indian machinations and also to draw attention towards India’s role of a spoiler in the ongoing Afghan peace process,” he maintained.

(With additional input from APP)