Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, strongly reacted to the recent statement by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, with regard to the insurgency in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. He termed it as highly provocative, irresponsible and inflammatory for the people of Pakistan.

“Modi should first stand accountable to the international community for unending and perpetual atrocities against Kashmiris in the disputed state of Jammu Kashmir, Muslims and Dalits in India,” he stated, further adding, “Balochistan is an integral part of Pakistan and follies of a dictator cannot empower the Indian prime minister to speak on our internal issues.”

Zardari also noted that Jammu Kashmir had been under curfew since many weeks and as many as 79 innocent Kashmiris had already been mowed down by the Indian armed forces, in the last two months alone. “Modi may have some ‘close friends’ in Pakistan but the people of Pakistan won’t tolerate such language from him against Balochistan or any other integral part of Pakistan,” he asserted.

“We are a sovereign nation (and have) all the tools to maintain our sovereignty at every cost,” he added. The PPP chairman also noted that his party along with all the democratic forces of Pakistan have strongly condemned the outrageous remarks of Narendra Modi and asked him to allow Kashmiri people the right to self-determination in accordance with the UN aegis instead of dilly-dallying and prolonging the issue.

“Attempts to divert the attention from world’s only nuclear flashpoint Kashmir won’t work,” he maintained.

He also called upon the UN Security Council to intervene immediately in order to halt the war-mongering Indian prime minister from dragging the region to devastation as well as to uphold sanity. He also talked about the PPP workers, who were standing with the people of Pakistan in a unified and integrated manner to fight against any aggression from the enemy.