ISLAMABAD: India has not formally conveyed any plan to Pakistan to completely seal its border with Pakistan by December 2018, Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said during a weekly press briefing.

“We don’t have the details,” he said when asked to comment on Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s remarks that India would seal the border with Pakistan completely by December 2018.

He said that on the one hand the Indian government talked of establishing a peaceful neighbourhood, and on the other, their actions contradicted their claims.

He regretted that no evidence had been shared to date on the Samjhota Express incident, despite India’s commitment at the highest political level to do so. With the passage of time, they have even exonerated those who publicly confessed to their involvement in that terrorist attack in Feb 2007, which is on record.

The FO spokesman said world knew that the Samjhota Express terrorist attack, which killed mostly Pakistanis, was carried out by RSS and Abhinav Bharat’s operatives, the terrorist Hindu outfits that work in tandem with IB, RAW and other intelligence agencies of India.

Pakistan has and will continue to raise the issue of that terrorist attack not only bilaterally with India, but also in its bilateral interactions with other countries.

Answering a question, he said highlighting the Kashmir issue, particularly the grave human rights situation, was part of Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to raise the matter at all bilateral and international forums. The country’s voice is reaching all corners of the world.

He said parliamentarians, human rights organisations, members of civil society and Pakistani and Kashmir diaspora were actively highlighting the plight of Kashmiris across Europe, the UK, North America and Nordic states. The prime minister’s envoys as well as Pakistan’s ambassadors in those countries are reaching out to various segments of the respective societies. It would not be right to say that no voice had been raised, he added.

“This is the reason why India is desperate and is making every effort to deflect attention from Indian-occupied Kashmir. Manifestations of these efforts are visible in their false media campaigns and false surgical strikes claim and other things like that. So, these are the reflections of the desperation of India and the pressure which is being built on India in the context of the brutalities it is committing in IoK. We have been asking for the international community’s intervention in this regard and we will keep on asking for this. And that is not all. More than merely stopping bloodshed in IoK, we urge that the Indian government and Indian occupation forces be called to account for the brutalities, murder and butchering of hundreds of innocent Kashmiris, while thousands of them have been taken away and their fate is unknown. There has to be an independent inquiry for which OIC and UN are also insisting,” he said.

In reply to a question about false images and video footage of rallies aired by Indian television channels, the spokesman said: “Indian media stood exposed and our media has been instrumental in showing the reality to the people in Pakistan and to the international community”.

About Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement that the Indian government has no intention of providing proof of the surgical strikes claimed to have been carried out by the Indian Army across the LoC, he said the blatant lie stood exposed now. He said India was desperate to divert attention of the international community from grave human rights violations in India-held Kashmir.

Mr Zakaria said Pakistan was not facing international isolation and was very much engaged in world affairs. A number of multilateral events and high-level visits are taking place in and out of Pakistan. “Wherever our leadership goes they are very well received. More and more countries are engaging with Pakistan. Pakistan’s strategic location is of immense importance,” he said, citing the examples of Russia and Iran’s recent engagements with Pakistan.

He refused to comment on media reports that India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval recently met representatives of the Taliban and militant Islamic State group. He, however, said statements of Mr Doval and Mr Parrikar on his intentions of using terrorists were already in public domain.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2016