India is spreading terrorism in the world including the South Asian region, said Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in her weekly press briefing on Thursday.
Pakistan is deeply concerned over the terror activities of India across the world, Baloch said .
Pakistan has also raised the issue of Afghan soil being used for terror activities in Pakistan at the UNSC, she said and urged the Kabul government to act against such elements. Pakistan will participate in a consultative conference on Palestine being held in Iran’s capital Tehran on December 23, the Foreign Office said Thursday. “We will continue to support international efforts to bring an end to Israel’s ongoing campaign against the Palestinian people,” the spokesperson said.
The FO spokesperson said Pakistan remained deeply concerned over the ongoing campaign of brutality and large-scale massacre unleashed upon the Palestinian people.
“We strongly condemn Israel’s ongoing war on hospitals and its barbarous bulldozing of tents in the courtyard and vicinity of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza that crushed to death numerous Palestinians including women, children, and wounded patients under treatment,” he said. She said the crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine were a “haunting stain on the conscience of humanity”. Bloch said Pakistan called for holding Israel accountable for its actions and the United Nations Security Council to take immediate effective action to impose a ceasefire and lift the inhumane siege against Gaza.
She expressed concern over the recent statements made by senior Israeli officials rejecting the creation of a viable and independent Palestinian state.
“Such statements, especially the comments on the “Oslo Accords”, reflect the true intentions of the Israeli occupation authorities, their disregard for International law and commitments and rejection of a just resolution of the Palestinian question,” she said.
The FO spokesperson said Pakistan firmly believed that the only just solution to the Palestinian question was the creation of an independent, viable, sovereign, and contiguous Palestinian State along pre-June 1967 borders with Al-Quds-Al-Sharif as its capital.
Baloch said Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi this month issued 166 visas to Indian Hindu pilgrims for visits to Shree Katas Raj Temples in Punjab and for participation in annual celebrations at Shadani Darbar Hayat Pitafi, Sindh. Pakistan, she said, also issued visas to 3,000 Sikh pilgrims from India on the occasion of the 554th birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak this month to visit Pakistan from November 25- December 4, 2023.
“Under the Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974, Pakistan welcomes and facilitates thousands of Sikh and Hindu pilgrims from India to visit Pakistan to attend various religious festivals and occasions every year,” she said.