RAW’s interference: Pakistan may broach Indian meddling at UN session

Sartaj Aziz says Islamabad can give a matching response to Delhi in case of any threat

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan is considering the possibility of raising the issue of India’s top spy agency’s involvement in its internal affairs at the UN General Assembly’s upcoming annual session at New York.

“We are thinking of raising the issue of Indian agency Research and Analysis Wing’s involvement in Pakistan’s internal affairs at the UN and other international forums,” Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told the National Assembly on Friday.

He was responding to a question regarding RAW’s alleged involvement in volatile areas of the country.



Aziz said the government has also taken up the issue of the RAW’s interference, particularly in Balochistan and tribal areas, with various foreign leaders, as well as with New Delhi.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to attend the UN General  Assembly session which is scheduled to take place in September this year,” Aziz said.

The premier top security adviser’s statement came a day after India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that the three gunmen, who stormed a police station in Indian Punjab’s Gurdaspur city on Monday, had come from Pakistan.

Diplomatic sources, however, said the final decision whether to raise the issue at the UN will be taken after assessing headway in the expected meeting between Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval in New Delhi in the coming weeks.

Aziz said Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry had also raised the issue with his Indian counterpart during the foreign secretary level talks held in Islamabad this year.



Replying to a supplementary question, he said the government has already condemned the recent terrorist attack in Gurdaspur and rejected the Indian allegations of Pakistan’s involvement in it.

“It has also been made clear that Pakistan has the capability to give a fitting reply in case of any threat from the Indian side,” he added.

Yemen crisis

In response to the lawmaker Khalida Mansoor’s question on Pakistan’s role in resolving the crisis in Yemen, Aziz said Premier Nawaz chaired six high-level meetings ( respectively on March 26, 30 and April 2, 6, 16 and 22) to discuss Pakistan’s response to the Saudi request for support.

He said Pakistan gave its firm assurance to its Saudi brothers that it shall stand shoulder to shoulder with them. “We also strongly condemned actions of the Houthis and other non-state actors to overthrow the legitimate Government of Yemen.

“We stressed upon the urgency of finding a peaceful solution of the crisis through dialogue among the warring factions,” he further said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2015.