ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday slammed India’s bid to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar at the United Nations, terming it a ‘politically motivated proposal’ aimed at “masking its own terrorist activities in Pakistan”.
Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, responding to reports that China had blocked India’s bid to blacklist the Jaish chief by moving the UN 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (the militant Islamic State group) and al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, said, “The 1267 Sanctions Committee related to ISIS/al Qaeda has rejected a politically motivated proposal by India.”
The FO spokesperson lauded the blocking of the proposal as a rejection of “Indian attempts to politicise and undermine the work of this important committee of the [UN] Security Council”.
Without explicitly referring to JeM or Masood Azhar, Zakaria said India’s proposal was “replete with frivolous information and baseless allegations… had no merit and was primarily aimed at advancing its narrow national agenda”.
Following the Uri army base attack in Held Kashmir last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to step up a drive to isolate Pakistan internationally. Shortly after the attack, India conducted an alleged ‘surgical strike’ in Pakistan – a claim Pakistan has strongly rejected.
Zakaria said, “India has in fact deployed terrorism as an instrument of state policy, and has itself been involved in perpetrating, sponsoring, supporting, and financing terrorism” while claiming to denounce terrorism. “It is clear that India’s unfounded allegations against Pakistan are in fact aimed at masking its own terrorist activities in Pakistan,” the FO spokesperson said.
He added that Pakistan had been a direct victim of India’s “state-sponsored terrorism”, referring to the arrest of suspected Research and Analysis Wing agent Kulbhushan Yadhav, which he termed “yet another proof of Indian-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan”.
“With such duplicitous behaviour and blood on its hands, India has little credibility on counterterrorism,” he said, adding that Pakistan will share dossiers of alleged Indian involvement in terrorism in Pakistan with the UN and members of the international community soon.