Pakistan on Saturday said India was sponsoring “terrorism” aimed at destabilising the country and targeting its economic partnership with China, accusations that top Pakistani officials delivered at a dramatic press conference.
In a joint press conference in the capital of Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, along with military spokesman Maj. Gen. Babar Iftikhar, said that Indian intelligence agents were operating out of neighboring Afghanistan to plan attacks within Pakistani borders.
"India was allowing its land to be used against Pakistan for terrorism,” said Mr. Qureshi, adding that New Delhi was also planning attacks from “neighboring countries”.
Mr. Qureshi said Pakistan is sending its evidence to the United Nations demanding India be censured, warning that “without international intervention it is difficult to guarantee peace in nuclear South Asia,” a region where both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons.
"We have irrefutable facts that we will present before the nation and international community through this dossier,” the Minister claimed.
There was no immediate comment from Indian officials to the claims by Pakistan’s government. New Delhi has likewise accused Pakistan of sponsoring militant groups that have carried out attacks inside its borders in recent years.
The presser comes a day after Pakistan’s military said five civilians and an Army soldier were killed by shelling from Indian troops across the border.
Mr. Iftikhar, who heads the media and public relations office for Pakistan’s armed forces, presented some of the dossier’s evidence purporting to show India’s involvement in attacks within Pakistan, including bank receipts showing funding and photos showing alleged perpetrators of attacks inside the Indian consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Mr. Iftikhar added that Indian intelligence agents were especially targeting Chinese development projects that have come with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The military spokesman also accused India of sponsoring banned organizations including U.N.-designated terrorist groups Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, and Allah Nazar’s Baluch Liberation Army.