Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi indirectly hit out at Pakistan at the 14th ASEAN-India Summit in Vientiane (Laos) on Thursday, Islamabad launched a counter-offensive saying “India is financing terrorism in Pakistan and open evidences are available on its involvement in subversive activities”.
In a report datelined Islamabad, the Pakistan state run news agency-Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria as saying at his weekly briefing that “one single nation” was spreading terrorism in South Asia ... India was in fact that single nation.”
Repeats Modi verbatim
The Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson repeated the exact words of Mr. Modi at the G20 Summit in China. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup in a series of tweets on Modi at G20 on September 5 had said, “Terrorist is a terrorist” PM:1 single nation in http://S.Asia is spreading agents of terror in our region.. ‘Isolate & sanction supporters of terrorism’ PM: Urge int’l community to act in unity & respond against terrorism.”
Islamabad and New Delhi have been engaged in verbal exchanges since the alleged encounter death of ‘Hizb-ul poster boy’ Burhan Wani on July 8 in Anantnag, which triggered unrest in the Kashmir valley.
After PM raised Baloch rights issue
It got worse after Mr. Modi weaved into his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort issues related to Pak-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit and alleged human rights violations by the Pakistani forces in the Balochistan Province.
An APP report said, “When asked if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will raise the issue of Kalbhushan Yadav at the upcoming UN General Assembly session, the spokesman said: “The issue of Indian involvement would definitely be highlighted…because of its direct links with incidents of terrorism in Pakistan.”
‘Pak nuke assets safe’
Separately Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry has at a conference in Islamabad asserted that Pakistan’s nuclear assets are safe from terrorists.
Radio Pakistan quoted him as saying that he advised the international community, particularly the United States, to shun discriminatory practices in the context of nuclear and defence ties as it jeopardised the stability of whole region.
‘Rights violations in Kashmir’
On Wednesday the Pakistan Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Kashmir Awais Leghari briefed the ‘international community’ in Geneva on the alleged human rights violations by the India in Kashmir.
Mr. Leghari is one of the 22 members of Parliament nominated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on August 27 to travel to different world capitals to lobby for the ‘Kashmir cause.’
“Pakistan can write as many letters as they want to the United Nations but this will not change the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India,” Mr. Vikas Swarup said at his last weekly briefing in New Delhi.
