Pakistan on Sunday told foreign envoys here that India was blaming it for a horrific suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir even without any investigation. Foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua said this to diplomats from Africa and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states. The Dawn newspaper quoted Janjua as saying that there was “a familiar pattern of India blaming Pakistan instantly after such incidents without any investigation”, foreign office spokesman Muhammad Faisal tweeted.
The Pakistan foreign office said a “deliberate anti-Pakistan frenzy is being spurred in India” and warned that “baseless Indian allegations and aggressive rhetoric are counterproductive and a threat to regional peace”.
Islamabad’s statement came three days after Jaish-e-Muhammad claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Pulwama district that killed 49 personnel. Pakistan said it rejected India’s allegations of its complicity because they were “made within a short time from the attack and without carrying out any investigations”.
“These knee-jerk and preconceived accusations were nevertheless consistent with well-rehearsed tactics from the Indian playbook after such incidents in the past,” the foreign office statement added.
“Bluster, belligerence and pursuit of expedient standards to suit internal political interests is both delusional and counterproductive. India must come out of the denial mode, end state repression against Kashmiri youth, address widespread alienation in (Jammu and Kashmir) and pursue the path of dialogue,” the statement said. The foreign office also raised questions over India’s acceptance of a video released by the attacker claiming to have ties to the JeM, saying New Delhi had double standards.
“India needs to introspect and respond to questions about its security and intelligence lapses that led to this attack,” it said. “India owes an explanation on reports of (suicide bomber) Adil Ahmed Dar’s arrest and custody since 2017”. Meanwhile, Pakistan Sunday said that Jaish-e-Mohammad, which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack, was banned in 2002 and Islamabad was fulfilling its obligations on sanctions as per the law.
In a major diplomatic offensive against Islamabad after the attack, India has highlighted Pakistan’s role in allegedly using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Faisal rejected India’s allegation that Pakistan was behind the attack. “JeM remains a proscribed entity in Pakistan since 2002 and Pakistan is implementing its obligations on sanctions implementation,” he said.
Faisal said on the one hand, India accepted the unverified social media content as “gold standard” but was not ready to accept the “confessions” by its national KulbhushanJadhav for perpetrating violence in Pakistan.
Pakistan desired normalisation of relations with India and in his letter to Prime Minister NarendraModi, Prime Minister Imran Khan followed his intention of taking two steps if India takes one, with the proposal for both foreign ministers to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Faisal said. “It was India which cancelled the meeting on baseless pretexts,” he said.