ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office on Sunday rejected the “unwarranted remarks” by India’s external affairs ministry in the wake of a joint press conference by the Pakistani and German foreign ministers wherein they agreed that the United Nations must intensify efforts to ensure a just resolution to the Kashmir dispute.
The news conference was held during foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s two-day visit to Germany on the invitation of his counterpart Annalena Baerbock last week.
The German official acknowledged her country had a “role and responsibility with regard to the situation in Kashmir” while seeking “the engagement of the United Nations to find peaceful resolutions in the region.”
Reacting to the development, the Indian external affairs ministry said “all serious and conscientious members of the global community have a role and responsibility to call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature.”
It maintained Indian-administered Kashmir had “borne the brunt of such a terrorist campaign for decades,” adding the UN Security Council and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) were still “pursuing Pakistan-based terrorists involved in the horrific 26/11 attacks” in Mumbai.”
The foreign office, however, dismissed these assertions, saying the Indian remarks had “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.”
“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, is well known,” it said in a statement. “It must, however, realize that no amount of obfuscation will change the reality of its repression in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).”
Responding to the Indian reference to the FATF proceedings, the foreign office said New Delhi’s statement corroborated “Pakistan’s long-standing view that India has been politicizing FATF and trying to misuse its membership of FATF to target Pakistan.”
It added the global financial watchdog should “take note of the irresponsible statement by India.”
India and Pakistan have fought several wars over the internationally recognized disputed region of Kashmir since their independence in August 1947.
The two countries claim the region in full, but control only parts of it.
The Pakistani foreign minister congratulated his team for a “short but productive” visit to Germany while expressing satisfaction over the state of bilateral relations between the two countries.
