Islamabad: Pakistan prime minister’s adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz demanded an international investigation into the recent attack on an Indian army base in Kashmir, in an interview with BBC.
He strongly rejected India’s allegations against Pakistan over the September 18 attack on the Indian army base at Uri in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The prime minister’s aide offered all assistance and cooperation by Pakistan for an international probe.
Aziz told the BBC Urdu language service, which reported his remarks on its website on Sunday, that it had become India’s habit to blame Pakistani agencies or non-state actors after every incident without even initiating an inquiry.
“So, it is our wish and demand that an impartial international inquiry be carried out into the Uri attack,” he said.
“Kashmiris are fighting for their rights in the disputed region and the attack on Indian army base has not benefited them; in fact, it helped divert global attention from Indian atrocities [in the city],” the adviser pointed out.
The government and political leaders have reacted angrily to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outburst on Saturday, when in a public speech he branded Pakistan an exporter of terrorism and warned that he would continue efforts to isolate it from the world.
Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said India’s “atrocities in Kashmir” will isolate it internationally.
“Oppressors are left isolated in this world. India will have to stop oppression, if it has to avert international isolation,” the minister said, while talking to reporters in Lahore.
The information minister said Pakistan wants peace and India should respond positively for the sake of peace and development in the region.
The Foreign Office spokesman said that confessions of Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav, who is in Pakistan custody, revealed that New Delhi fuels terrorist activities in various parts of Pakistan.
“While India has cast aspersions on Pakistan, it continues to sponsor terrorism in Pakistan through its state apparatus,” the spokesman said in a statement on Twitter.
The statement noted that India continues to indulge in a well thought-out vilification campaign against Pakistan. “Such irresponsible behaviour at the highest political level is regrettable,” the spokesman said of Modi’s diatribe.
The spokesman said India is trying to distract world attention from the “atrocities perpetrated by its forces in Occupied Kashmir.”
