Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: India is trying to divert attention from its internal issues by sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Monday when asked to comment on New Delhi’s involvement in the Lahore blast.

Mr Qureshi said that after the investigation into the Johar Town, Lahore blast that clearly pointed to India’s involvement in it, Pakistan was expecting that the world would take cognizance of India’s terror financing on the basis of hard evidence against India, retrieved during the Lahore blast investigation.

“We will raise this issue at international forums,” FM Qureshi stressed.

The foreign minister stated that Pakistan will reveal to the world how India is funding terrorism in other countries and that Pakistan was taking every possible step to root out terrorism and defend its frontiers. He said Pakistan had fenced its borders and purged its tribal areas of the scourge of terrorism.

When asked about India’s Kashmir policy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Kashmiri politicians, FM Qureshi was of the view that New Delhi has failed completely and the Kashmiri leaders who met him had expressed anger over the situation in the occupied territory.

“India is grappling with the financial crisis, unemployment has increased there [occupied Kashmir] and to divert attention from their internal issues, they are doing this [sponsoring terrorism].”

India behind Lahore attack

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf had said that the main mastermind behind the attack was an Indian citizen who had links with India.

“I want to make sure that our message is heard very clearly [regarding] this particular incident on the 23rd of June in Lahore. We have concrete evidence and intelligence, including financial and telephone records, which point to direct Indian sponsorship of these terrorists,” he had said while briefing the nation about the incident.

Yusuf had said that he would like to remind everyone that “Indian use of territory and people of third countries, which actually embarrasses other countries, is not new”.

“We have been constantly reminding the world of Indian actions, including a detailed dossier that was put out last November with details — minute details — of finances, of action, of support coming from India,” the national security adviser pointed out.