ISLAMABAD : No country had used terrorism better than India as she called on the international community to take note of New Delhi’s attempts to destabilise Pakistan,State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said on Wednesday,while addressing Press Conference in FO,Islamabad.
The minister said that India’s objective was to undermine Pakistan’s peace and security through terrorism, saying “no country had used terrorism better than India”.
Her media briefing comes a day after Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said India was behind last year’s bomb blast near Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s Johar Town residence in Lahore, which claimed four lives.
“To play on the back of the attention of the world on terrorism and to play the victim, no country has benefitted from it better than India.”
She went on to say that India was portraying itself as a champion of counter-terrorism even though it had not made no contributions in this regard and paid only lip service.
“If you compare Pakistan and India, you will find Pakistan to always be at the forefront of counter-terrorism, of ensuring that we are a player in the world to try and make sure terrorism does not continue to haunt us.”
‘Perpetrators of terrorism projecting themselves as victims’
Khar began her press conference by saying that terrorism posed a serious threat to peace, adding that Pakistan had been at the receiving end of this scourge for long.
“I wish I was here to be talking to you how South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) is prospering, how regional connectivity is happening […] we are at a unique place where perpetrators of terrorism are projecting themselves to be the greatest victims of terrorism.
“As perpetrators of terrorism are drum-beating as United Nations Security Council (UNSC) presidents to talk about terrorism from imaginary sources. And we are also at a unique place because no one is willing to call the bluff, to call out the clear, simple, glaring hypocrisy.”
She said that when there was “undeniable, indisputable” evidence, it was necessary to “call a spade a spade”.
“This particular effort is to bring attention to the attention of the world and to expect them and encourage them to see things based on evidence.”
Dossier on 2021 blast in Lahore’s Johar Town
She highlighted that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had already held a press conference a day earlier on the blast in Lahore’s Johar Town in 2021. She said earlier in the day, the foreign secretary called the diplomatic corp and shared a “dossier”, containing evidence of India’s involvement in the incident, with them.
“This dossier, as you already know, has details, evidence of how India has found to be fully behind this particular incident which led to the loss of lives. And we do not, unlike our neighbours, go the next day and blame one country or the other. We waited till we had strong hard evidence to be making the case we are making today.”
In June 2021, a powerful blast near the residence of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed in Johar Town had killed three people and injured 24 others, including a police constable.-Courtesy AFP
