ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s state minister for foreign affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, on Wednesday called on the United Nations (UN) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to hold India accountable for its ‘terrorist’ actions and said Pakistan had “undeniable evidence” of the Indian state’s involvement in a 2021 militant attack in the eastern city of Lahore.
In June 2021, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a police checkpoint outside the house of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of a militant group that India blames for masterminding several attacks inside its territory. Four people were killed in the attack while Saeed and his family were not hurt.
Addressing a press conference, Khar said Pakistani authorities had gathered “undeniable and indisputable” evidence about the Lahore attack, which was planned and supported by India to target innocent civilians in Pakistan.
“International community, especially the UN and FATF, has a responsibility to hold India accountable for its terrorist actions and we are looking for accountability,” she said, calling India a recruiter, financier, and facilitator of various militant outfits in the region.
Pakistan's minister of foreign affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar (center), addresses a media briefing in Islamabad, Pakistan, on December 14, 2022. (Screengrab from the video shared by MOFA)
Khar said the Lahore attack was a test case for the credibility and integrity of international counterterrorism and counter-financing of terrorism regimes.
“The world must show that efforts to counterterrorism are nondiscriminatory,” the minister said. “The families and loved ones of the victims look toward all of us for justice.”
Pakistan has prepared a dossier that contains detailed evidence of how India was found to be behind the Lahore bomb attack which led to the loss of lives, Khar said, adding that the Pakistani foreign secretary had shared the dossier with the diplomatic corp in Islamabad earlier today, Wednesday.
Pakistan's foreign secretary Asad M. Khan (third left) briefs diplomatic missions about the dossier, containing detailed evidence of how India is found to be behind the 2021 Lahore bomb attack, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on December 14, 2022. (MOFA)
The minister said Pakistan would pursue the case “relentlessly” at every level.
“We have shared the dossier with the members of the UNSC, and [will also be] sharing it with the UN secretary-general,” she said, hoping that they would look into the evidence and fulfill their responsibilities.
India’s foreign office has not responded to Pakistan’s accusations.
