Pakistan rejects Indian denial of involvement in Dasu attack

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rejected as “absurd remarks” Indian denial of support to a deadly bus bombing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that killed 13 people killed including nine Chinese workers.

A further 28 Chinese nationals were also injured in the attack in July on a bus carrying Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanical staff to the Dasu dam construction site in Upper Kohistan district.

Following a comprehensive probe, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced earlier this week the attack was the one carried out by a branch of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan backed by the intelligence agencies of India and Afghanistan.

Responding to Qureshi, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs of India, termed the assertion as “yet another attempt by Pakistan to malign India” something he declared was done “in a bid to deflect international attention”, NDTV reported.

However, the Foreign Office observed New Delhi stood “fully exposed”.

“India typically resorts to sophistry, obfuscation and re-fabrication. Bland denials and regurgitation of a false narrative, however, will not change facts,” its spokesperson, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, said in a press statement.

Islamabad, he said, had repeatedly presented irrefutable evidence of New Delhi’s “active planning, promoting, aiding, abetting, financing and execution” of militancy inside Pakistan.

Last year, Pakistan had presented a dossier detailing Indian sponsorship of terrorism and militant groups inside Pakistan, he recalled, observing Islamabad also presented evidence on Indian involvement in the attack in a Lahore neighbourhood.

At least three people were killed and 21 injured after a bomb blast near a residential neighbourhood of Johar Town in June.

“The most familiar and undeniable face of India’s state-sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan was commander Kulbhushan Jadhav — caught red-handed in March 2016.

We reiterate our call on India to abjure the use of state-terrorism as an instrument of policy. Pakistan will continue to resolutely oppose Indian machinations imperilling regional peace and security,” Chaudhri said.

Later in the day, the Foreign Office also rejected the “irresponsible” and “misleading” statement by Indian officials regarding an ‘encounter’ in Kulgam area of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

A day ago, an Indian police official in IOK claimed to have “confirmed Pakistan’s involvement” in an attack on an Indian Border Security Force (BSF) convoy.

According to NDTV, the official said that “a Pakistani terrorist” was neutralised during the ‘encounter’ in Kulgam.

However, the FO spokesperson rejected the allegation and said: “It is ironic that without any corroboration, the Indian government has once again resorted to leveling serious allegations against Pakistan.”

“This is yet another manifestation of the baseless propaganda and smear campaign against Pakistan that is characteristic of the Indian government and an amenable Indian media.”

“This is typical Indian strategy to shift blames, employ unfounded assertions against Pakistan as a smokescreen, and [that seeks] to undermine the indigenous struggle for self-determination of the people of IOK,” the statement added.

“Pakistan calls upon India to refrain from its reprehensible propaganda campaign as no number of Indian falsehoods can succeed in diverting attention from India’s serious crimes in IOK,” the statement concluded.