ISLAMABAD: Top Pakistani officials said on Sunday they have evidence of five training camps for Daesh fighters being operated on Indian soil.
Islamabad has long claimed that India sponsors militant groups — which India denies — but Sunday's announcement at a joint press conference of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari provided specific accusations.
The officials presented a 131-page document with along audio and video footage and GPS data, which they said proved the existence of Indian-funded and managed training camps for Daesh militants. They have also documented atrocities committed by the Indian military in Kashmir.
The five Daesh camps, according to the findings, are located in Gulmarg, a mountain town in Indian-controlled Kashmir, three in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, and one in Uttarakhand, also in India's north.
"The evidence reflects that India is running five ISIS (Daesh) training camps, out of which one is located at Gulmarg in Indian-occupied Kashmir, three are located in Rajasthan and one in Uttarakhand," foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told reporters during the conference in Islamabad.
"Serious concern for international community is Indian patronage of ISIS," he said, adding that the GPS coordinates of the camps have been included in the dossier.
In November, Qureshi and military spokesman Maj. Gen. Babar Iftikhar presented another dossier that contained what they called "irrefutable evidence of India’s financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organizations, including UN-designated terrorist groups." The document was handed over to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
During Sunday's conference, the Pakistani officials also said they had "solid proof" of extrajudicial killings in Indian-controlled Kashmir that have been committed through fake encounters and false flag operations by the Indian army.
Qureshi said the new dossier covers accounts of 3,432 cases of war crimes in which 1,178 Indian troops have been found to be involved.
"We expect the EU, UK and others to impose sanctions on India under their specific global human rights sanction regimes for perpetrating state-sponsored war crimes," he said.
Since 2014, according to the document, more than 30,000 people in Kashmir have faced 31 forms of torture. The report identifies 239 torture cells across the Indian-controlled region and highlights Indian attempts to change its demographic structure.
India's foreign ministry has not responded to Pakistan's new accusations. The spokesperson of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad declined comment.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim it in full and rule in part. The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars over control of the region.
