Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif blasted the West for hypocrisy in its treatment of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries.
“Doesn’t the world think that you deny one person [Modi] a visa, declare him a terrorist, and call him the ‘Butcher of Gujarat’,” said Asif, in an interview with Geo News on Wednesday.
Asif argued that Pakistan is often blamed for terrorism without concrete evidence, whereas Modi has documented allegations against him, yet the Indian PM is embraced internationally because of India’s large market and economic importance.
Pakistan’s Chinese-made jet brought down at least two Indian fighter aircraft, US officials say
“Pakistan only faces allegations, while the West, including the US and Canada, has provided evidence against him [Modi] proving he is a terrorist.
“But because of people’s material gains and material concentrations — that it’s [India] is a huge market with 1.5 billion people and there’s money to be made — I’m telling you that even today, poverty there [India] is worse than ours.
“If you exclude their top 5%, their GDP is still lower than ours,” he said.
The remarks come amid tensions between Pakistan and India that rose after an attack in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) killed 26 men, for which New Delhi blamed Islamabad.
Pakistan denied the allegations and called for a neutral investigation of the attack.
In the wee hours of Wednesday, the Pakistan military brought down five Indian Air Force jets, including three Rafale jets, in retaliation following Indian missile attacks.
At least 31 Pakistanis were martyred and dozens were injured in Indian missile attacks inside Pakistan at six locations, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a press conference.
Pakistan shot down five Indian jets, including three Rafale, one MiG-21, and one SU-30, he informed.
India reportedly responded with drone strikes, killing at least one person on Wednesday.
“India last night took yet another blatant military act of aggression against Pakistan by sending Herap drones at multiple locations,” Chaudhry said in his latest press conference on Thursday.
He said that the Pakistan Army shot down 25 Indian drones in multiple locations in Pakistan.
“The Pakistan armed forces, using their soft-kill (technical) and hard-kill (weaponised) skills fully, have shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones sent by India,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement today.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.