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Pakistan on Sunday rejected an official spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs’ “unwarranted remarks” on a joint press conference of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and his German counterpart in Berlin in which they had discussed the U.N.’s role in resolving the Kashmir dispute.
Addressing a press conference alongside Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had noted her country also had “a role and responsibility with regard to the situation in Kashmir,” adding that Berlin supported “intensively the engagement of the United Nations to find peaceful resolutions in the region.”
Responding to her statement, Indian spokesman Arindam Bagchi sought to deflect by saying the global community had a responsibility to “call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature.” Alleging that Jammu and Kashmir had “borne the brunt of such terrorist campaign for decades,” it said the U.N. Security Council and FATF (Financial Action Task Force) were still pursuing Pakistan-based terrorists involved in the horrific 26/11 attacks. “When states do not recognize such dangers, either because of self-interest or indifference, they undermine the cause of peace, not promote it,” he added.
In a rejoinder, Pakistan’s Foreign Office noted that Bhutto-Zardari and Baerbock had agreed on the international community’s responsibility, as well as a need for intensified efforts from the U.N., with regards to a peaceful and just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. “While the views expressed by the foreign ministers elucidated the growing urgency and concern in the international community on the Kashmir dispute, the MEA’s gratuitous remarks have exposed the desperation of a country that finds itself increasingly isolated on the issue of its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and the reprehensible human rights violations being perpetrated by its ruthless occupation force in the occupied territory,” it added.
Slamming India’s “proclivity to hoist the bogey of cross-border terrorism whenever there is a call for increased scrutiny of its unlawful occupation and brutality in Jammu and Kashmir,” the statement stressed that no amount of obfuscation would change the reality of its repression in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “India’s credentials as a purveyor of state-terrorism in the IIOJK and as an instigator of cross-border terrorism in Pakistan need no reiteration. Hollow denials and evasion of responsibility will no longer cover-up India’s mischievous strategy of posing as a ‘victim’ of terrorism while shifting blame elsewhere,” it said.
Noting that Pakistan’s contributions to the cause of counterterrorism were globally acknowledged, the Foreign Office lamented that India’s allusion to FATF displayed bias, hostility and partiality towards Pakistan, as well as corroborating the view that Delhi has been politicizing the FATF and trying to misuse its membership to target Pakistan. “FATF needs to take note of the irresponsible statement by India,” it said, adding India should “introspect, address the international community’s valid concerns and mend its conduct in the IIOJK.”
The statement also called on the international community, particularly human rights and humanitarian organizations, to condemn India’s barbaric state-terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and ensure that Kashmiris are given their right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UNSC resolutions and as per their own wishes.