ISLAMABAD: Taking strong exception, Pakistan’s Foreign Office and the military have strongly reacted to the Indian defence minister and army chief’s baseless assertions that dubbed Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism”.
“Pakistan strongly rejects the baseless accusations and unfounded assertions made by India’s defence minister and chief of army staff on 13 and 14 January 2025,” Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said this in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that insinuating Pakistan as the epicentre of terrorism by the Indian army chief is not only contrary to facts, but also an exercise in futility to beat the dead horse of India’s default position - blaming Pakistan for indigenous reaction to state-sponsored brutality. It is a classic case of extreme duplicity, reads the ISPR statement released on Wednesday.
The FO spokesperson said, Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally-recognised disputed territory, whose final status is to be determined in accordance with relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. In this context, India has no legal or moral grounds to assert fictitious claims over the territories of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, the statement added.
Such rhetoric from Indian leadership cannot divert international attention from the grave human rights violations and oppressive measures being carried out in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. These actions suppress the legitimate and just struggle of the Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination.
Pakistan also underscores that provocative statements of this nature are counterproductive to regional peace and stability.
Instead of levelling baseless allegations against others, FO said that India must introspect and address its own documented involvement in orchestrating targeted assassinations, acts of subversion, and state-sponsored terrorism in foreign territories.
Furthermore, the ISPR statement said that remarks are an attempt to deflect world’s attention from India’s brutality in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), repression of minorities internally, and India’s trans-national repression, the statement said, emphasising, the General Officer, in his earlier stint in IIOJK personally oversaw the most brutal repression of Kashmiris. Such politically motivated and fallacious statements reflect the extreme politicisation of Indian Army.
The world is witness to the India’s hate-speech conclaves that provoke genocide against Muslims. International community is not oblivious to India’s trans-national assassinations, and Indian Security Forces’ oppressive use of force against innocent civilians and gross human rights violations against unarmed Kashmiris. Such oppression has only served to strengthen the resolve of Kashmiris for their right of self-determination, enshrined in the UN Security Council Resolutions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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