Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday categorically rejected the “absurd remarks” by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denying India’s involvement in the recent Dasu terror attack, which claimed the lives of three Chinese and nine Pakistanis.

On July 14, a bus carrying Chinese nationals and accompanying Pakistani staff working on the Dasu hydropower project, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohistan district, fell into a ravine following an explosion. Although the incident was initially reported by the Foreign Office as “a mechanical failure resulting in leakage of gas that caused a blast”, a probe revealed that it was an act of terrorism involving the nexus between India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS).

“Fully exposed, India typically resorts to sophistry, obfuscation and re-fabrication,” said the Foreign Office spokesperson, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, in a statement. “Bland denials and regurgitation of a false narrative, however, will not change facts,” said Chaudhri.

Pakistan has repeatedly presented irrefutable evidence of India’s active planning, promoting, aiding, abetting, financing and execution of terrorist activities in Pakistan, the handout said. The statement highlighted that Pakistan presented a detailed dossier to the international community last year with proof of India’s involvement in such activities, including in the Lahore attack.

“The most familiar and undeniable face of India’s state-sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan is Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav — caught red-handed in March 2016,” it added. “We reiterate our call on India to abjure the use of state-terrorism as an instrument of policy. “Pakistan will continue to resolutely oppose Indian machinations imperiling regional peace and security,” the spokesperson said.