After External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj rejected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s peace initiative, Pakistan hit back by giving ‘dossiers’ of alleged Indian support for terrorism in Balochistan, and Karachi, and the Pakistani Taliban, to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Pakistan’s permanent representative to UN, Maleeha Lodhi handed over three dossiers to Ban’s chief of staff Susana Malcorra on Thursday, as Islamabad had been threatening to do so for months.
Pakistani National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz had brandished a couple of files emblazoned with the words – ‘RAW’s involvement in Pakistan’ and “highly confidential” at the press conference at which the first ever talks with Indian counterpart Ajit Doval was cancelled last month. He had said then that he hoped to hand it over to Doval if he met him on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
India deputed a first secretary in the permanent mission to respond to the Pakistan PM’s UNGA speech. Similarly, Pakistan deployed a junior diplomat to give its response to Swaraj’s speech on the same platform.
Pakistani diplomat Bilal Ahmed said the dossiers handed over to Ban contained “evidence of Indian involvement in terrorism and fomenting instability in Pakistan”.
“The dossiers include details of Indian interference and support for terrorism in Balochistan and Karachi as well as its security and intelligence agencies’ link with the TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) especially in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas),” he said.
Ahmed accused India of using the “terrorism bogey” for not only stalling bilateral dialogue but also vitiating the overall atmosphere between the two countries. “India’s insistence of limiting talks to a one-point agenda proves it is neither interested nor serious in engaging in genuine dialogue,” he said, referring to Swaraj’s statement. The foreign minister had said only “one point” was required, not four – “give up terror and let us sit down and talk”. The diplomat said the “whole world” was “united in unequivocally condemning terrorism, except India… By doing so, India seeks to mask its own sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan.”
He then went on to say that India’s decision not to challenge the bail given to Samjhauta Express bombings’ suspect Swami Aseemanand indicated its unwillingness to prosecute its nationals involved in terror incidents against Muslims.