FO rejects India's 'baseless' terror claims

ISLAMABAD:

The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday rubbished what it said were "baseless assertions" by the Indian home minister linking Pakistan to the recent arrests of terror suspects.

Earlier in the day, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said that security agencies arrested more than 200 "terror operatives" allegedly linked to Pakistan, thwarting potential "subversive attacks" around the country's Independence ?Day last week, in one of the largest such crackdowns in years.

A multi-state operation against what Shah said was a terror group, which he accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of backing, was carried out across 14 Indian states on August 12, three days before India celebrated its 80th year of freedom from British colonial rule.

Shah said agencies had recovered pistols, live cartridges and grenades allegedly bearing Pakistan Ordnance Factory markings and crude bombs.

Questioned about the allegations, FO spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said: "Pakistan strongly rejects the allegations made by India's Home Minister, attempting to link Pakistan with certain arrests in India," adding that such propaganda was yet another demonstration of India's "malicious campaign against Pakistan" to divert attention from its domestic security challenges and to blame Pakistan for narrow domestic political gains.

"At home, India is a repressive state, brutally oppressing its minorities and silencing dissent. Externally, India is exporting terror and abetting terrorists," Andrabi stated.

He further said that "unfounded Indian insinuations" could not divert international attention away from India's state-sponsored terrorism, targeted assassinations, and subversion in foreign territories, adding that Pakistan had repeatedly shared evidence of India's involvement in terrorism and destabilising activities in Pakistan.

"The convicted and serving Indian naval commander, Kulbhushan Jadhav, is undeniable proof of India's direct involvement in subversion and terrorism in Pakistan," the spokesperson noted.

He stated that Pakistan had urged the international community to reject baseless Indian allegations and hold India accountable for its state-sponsored terrorism in the region.

This is not the first time that India has accused Pakistan of fomenting terror. Pakistan has also similarly accused India of funding and supporting terrorist groups in the country.

Last month, while responding to Indian allegations of cross-border terrorism in a recent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, First Secretary Ansar Shah had said that "the baseless assertion regarding terrorism is in fact an effort by India to conceal its sponsorship and financing of terrorism against Pakistan. India's terrorist proxies, the TTP, BLA and Majeed Brigade have killed thousands of civilians and law enforcement personnel, including women and children on our soil".

"India's involvement in extraterritorial executions, including in North America, is also well known. India is not a victim of terrorism. It is a sponsor of terrorism," Shah had added.

"India is also a perpetrator of state terrorism, including in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir – whose population is being denied its right to self-determination in gross violation of numerous resolutions of the Security Council," Shah had further said.