By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday rejected allegations that it is connected to a criminal network India says it has been dismantling in a nationwide crackdown, with a senior Pakistani official dismissing the claims as an attempt by New Delhi to distract from problems at home.
The denial, carried by Pakistan’s state-run broadcaster, came in response to a weekend announcement from India’s home minister, Amit Shah, who said security forces had arrested more than 200 people accused of belonging to a Pakistan-backed “terror group” in a sweep across 14 Indian states on August 12 — three days ahead of India’s Independence Day.
The Pakistani official called the allegations “another Indian attempt to distract public attention from real internal issues and external setbacks,” according to Pakistan Television. The broadcaster quoted the official as saying Pakistan would not “lend credibility to an unverified Indian media story by commenting on its particulars.” Pakistan’s foreign ministry had not issued its own statement as of Monday evening.
The rejection follows a pattern each government has repeated for years. India routinely accuses Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of funding and directing militant activity on Indian soil. Pakistan just as routinely denies it, often characterizing such claims as attempts to divert attention from India’s own troubles — the same language Monday’s statement echoed.
Shah, in announcing the arrests, described the operation as targeting a syndicate he called the Shahzad Bhatti Network, which Indian officials allege receives funding and direction from the ISI. India has offered no outside verification of its claim in the dispute over the alleged network.
Monday’s exchange lands against the backdrop of a still-tense relationship between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who fought a brief but intense military conflict last year. In April 2025, gunmen killed 26 people, most of them tourists, at a mountain meadow in Indian-occupied Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attack; Islamabad denied any role and called for an independent international investigation. The following month, the dispute escalated into four days of Indian airstrikes and cross-border shelling before a ceasefire took hold.
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