Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Indian conventional and unconventional military build-up is disturbing the balance of power in south Asia. It is also a threat to regional peace, Foreign Office Spokesman Nafess Zakaria said on Friday.

He was addressing the weekly media briefing at the Foreign Office.

“Pakistan has long maintained that India rapidly expanding military nuclear programme posed a grave threat to peace and stability in the region and beyond. These concerns have been fully validated by publicly available reports on significant upcoming fissile material facilities and build-up of un-safeguarded fissile material in India,” he said.

Zakaria said that the buildup had been facilitated by the 2008 Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver granted to India, which had not only dented the credibility of the non-proliferation regime and undermined its efficacy, but also negatively affected the strategic balance in South Asia.

“It is unfortunate that the NSG did not require India to make any worthwhile non-proliferation commitments at the time. Another country-specific exemption by the NSG on the membership question will only further exacerbate the ill effects of the 2008 exemption. It remains our hope that the NSG member states will make a well-considered decision this time keeping in view its long-term implications for the global non-proliferation regime as well as strategic stability in our region,” he said.

The spokesman expressed “immense concern” over the deliberate Indian act of creating shortage of basic amenities and continued detention of Hurriyat leaders in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. He invited international community’s attention and action against India’s “despicable acts”.

“The food crisis and deliberate act of Indians to create shortage of basic amenities, continued detention of Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik in precarious and torturous conditions are issues of immense concern,” he said.

Zakaria said that Kashmir Black Day had been observed nationwide in Pakistan and also across the globe on October 27.

“The state terrorism that India unleashed on unarmed defenseless Kashmiris, ever since, has caused more hardships for Kashmiris,” he said.

“There are trails of numerous massacres, extra-judicial killings, killings in staged encounters, organised dishonoring of Kashmiri women, including girls as young as three-year old, and arbitrary arrests of tens of thousands committed by the Indian forces,” he said.

The spokesman strongly condemned the continued unprovoked ceasefire violations from the Indian side across the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary.

“India has violated the ceasefire agreement of 2003. The Indian Army is targeting Pakistani civilians across the Working Boundary and LoC,” he said. Referring to the issue of the expulsion of an Indian diplomatic official, he foreign secretary had summoned the Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale on October 27 and conveyed the decision of the government of Pakistan to declare Surjeet Singh as persona non grata. The foreign secretary expressed deep concern over the activities of the Indian official that were in violation of the Vienna Convention and the established diplomatic norms, he said. The spokesperson said that the Indian High Commission had been asked to make necessary arrangements for Surjeet Singh and his family to leave Pakistan by October 29, 2016. The foreign secretary hoped that other members of the high commission would not indulge in the activities detrimental to Pakistan’s national security, he said. Zakaria said the official was involved in activities that were directly against the national security interests of Pakistan. He said that a Pakistani diplomat had been kept under detention in India in contravention of the Vienna Convention. “Pakistan has protested against this with the Indian side,” he said.

The spokesman said that India was supporting terrorism activities in Pakistan. “We have irrefutable proof of Indian state involvement in activities against Pakistan’s territorial integrity and national security” he said.

He said that Pakistan was going to share dossiers with the United Nations. “Indian involvement in terrorism inside Pakistan is proven beyond doubt.