Pakistan ups the ante with India

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan has launched a fresh diplomatic offensive against India over its secret agency’s involvement in terrorism in the country as Islamabad submitted a dossier to the UN Security Council, containing evidence against Delhi.

A day after when Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah disclosed at a news conference that the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was behind the 2021 bombing in Lahore, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar on Wednesday came with more evidence while the foreign secretary briefed the diplomatic corps about the latest findings.

The flurry of developments over the past few days suggested a clear shift in Pakistan’s approach towards India. Observers believe that this could be linked with the change of command in the army.

Army chief General Syed Asim Munir, during his visit to the Line of Control (LoC) a few days ago, gave a more unambiguous statement on India indicating that a policy of appeasement tried in the past would no longer continue.

“The back-to-back news conferences by the key ministers are part of the efforts aimed at advancing Pakistan’s narrative at the international level at a time when New Delhi continues to cast aspersions against Islamabad,” official sources familiar with the development said.

On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan briefed heads of the diplomatic missions based in Islamabad on the “state-sponsored terrorism” against Pakistan “planned, conducted and financed by India”.

“The foreign secretary shared a dossier of the Indian involvement in last year’s terrorist attack in Lahore and asked the international community to hold India accountable for its crimes,” said a statement issued by the Foreign Office.

Separately, Pakistan submitted a dossier with the UNSC, containing evidence that India perpetrated terrorism in Pakistan.

The state minister r told a news conference that the dossier would soon be shared with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, which detailed evidence and information of India's involvement in a 2021 bombing in Lahore last year, and other incidents of sabotage and terrorism.

"We will call it information-based evidence," Khar said. "It is sharing information and sharing evidence on what India has been up to. Let's put the record straight, that's what it is, and ... to let the world know that what is happening in the region," she added.

Referring to the blast in Lahore’s Johar Town in 2021 that killed three people and injured 24 others, the minister said that the Lahore blast-specific dossier was a “clear evidence of India’s planned and perpetrated attack against civilians”.

Interior Minister Rana Sana had accused India on Tuesday of backing and funding the bombing outside the house of Hafiz Saeed. India had claimed that Saeed was the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. Saeed has denied the charge.

Khar said the facilitators and mastermind of the bombing that killed three people in Lahore were based in India. "We would want India to hand them over, and as responsible nations do... and if India is a responsible nation, they will cooperate," she said.

Responding to a question, the minister of state dismissed the impression of “dossier diplomacy”, saying that on the basis of available hard facts about agents being caught red-handed, “I would call it an evidence-based intelligence sharing”.

She called upon the international community and the United Nations to hold India accountable for perpetrating terrorism in Pakistan. “No other country has used terrorism better than India that played the victim card despite being the biggest perpetrator of terrorism, she added.

“The more terrorism it perpetrates, the more victim card it plays,” she said, adding that India had “mastered” the art of using international organizations for its political gains. “India fits the definition of a rogue state, [as] repeated terror incidents reflected India’s persistent hostility, and the use of terrorist proxies against Pakistan.”

When asked, she did not agree that Pakistan’s efforts to expose Indian terrorism made little impact though admitted that certain countries because of “political exigencies” looked the other way as far as the neighboring country’s involvement in terrorism was concerned.

She dismissed the notion that Pakistan was playing“dossier diplomacy.” Khar insisted that Pakistan had the evidence to back its claims, hoping the world would take cognizance of it.

Afghanistan

Responding to another question, Khar dismissed the notion that she had been denied a meeting by a certain minister during her recent visit to Afghanistan. “No such meeting was asked by the Pakistani side. I was very well received [in Kabul] and in the meetings, and we exactly achieved what we wanted to achieve.”

Khar stressed that she believed in “useful diplomacy without theatrics” where the focus was to protect the interests of Pakistan instead of mere countering the social media disinformation campaign. Pakistan would never compromise on its red lines, she added.

“We are in a process of engaging very deeply with all entities. Whether it is the security of diplomats or civilians, we have to make sure that such incidents never happen again as we take it very strongly and seriously,” she said.