By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday denounced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s accusations of using terrorism to advance strategic interests in Kashmir, calling his comments “belligerent” and detrimental to regional peace.
Modi’s statements came during an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Kargil conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Indian Hindu nationalist Prime Minister said he wanted to “tell these patrons of terrorism that their unholy plans will never be successful” against his country.
Pakistan’s foreign office rejected the allegations, saying they cannot deflect international attention from India’s “heavy-handed approach” in Kashmir.
“Pakistan rejects the Indian Prime Minister’s belligerent remarks made in Drass, Ladakh on 26 July 2024,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“Bravado and jingoism undermine regional peace, and are totally counter-productive for resolution of long-standing disputes between Pakistan and India, especially the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir,” it added.
“The Indian leaders’ rhetorical statements cannot deflect international attention from India’s heavy-handed approach to suppress the Kashmiri people’s just struggle for realisation of their fundamental rights and freedoms, particularly their inalienable right to self-determination.”
The statement said India should reflect on its campaign of “orchestrating targeted assassinations, subversion and terrorism in foreign territories” instead of accusing others of terrorism.
The FO said Pakistan stood resolute in its intent and ability to safeguard its sovereignty against “any aggression, as exemplified by its robust response to India’s reckless incursion” in February 2019.
The 1999 Kargil conflict was the last major battle between the two nuclear-armed foes, who have fought numerous wars since their partition into two nations upon independence from British colonial rule. It came just a year after tit-for-tat atomic weapons tests by the neighbours and spurred international alarm that the confrontation risked tipping into all-out nuclear war.
India-Pakistan relations have been largely frozen as the two countries downgraded their diplomatic ties in tit-for-tat moves in August 2019 after New Delhi scrapped Kashmir’s special status and split it into two federally administered territories.
Ties were further strained after a suicide bombing of an Indian military convoy in Kashmir was traced to Pakistan-based militants, prompting India to carry out an airstrike on what it said was a militant base in Pakistan.
Earlier this year, Pakistan said there was credible evidence linking Indian agents to the killing of people on its soil — accusations that India termed “fake.”
India said last month that India would look for a solution to cross-border terrorism, which “cannot be the policy of a good neighbor.”
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