ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday strongly rejected all references and insinuations by the Indian leadership directed against it at the so-called ‘No Money for Terror’ ministerial meeting held in New Delhi.

The Foreign Office in a statement said that guided by its incorrigible and incurable desire to malign Pakistan at every available forum, India continued to mislead the world about Pakistan’s counter-terrorism credentials by repeatedly leveling false accusations of the country’s alleged involvement in the financing of proscribed terrorist organisations.

“India’s hollow rhetoric has fallen flat in the face of Pakistan’s successful counter-terrorism measures, which have been accorded due recognition and acknowledgment from the premier international body on counter-terrorism, anti-money laundering, and terror financing, i.e. the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),” it said.

“Our robust and credible AML/CFT actions and satisfactory implementation of FATF Action Plans duly secured Pakistan’s successful removal off the Grey List, this October,” the FO statement said.

Slams New Delhi’s ‘relentless terror campaign’ in held Kashmir

It regretted that India was continuing its relentless terror campaign in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK).

“There is no justification for India’s state-sponsored terrorism in IIOJK, where its security forces terrorise, torment and torture innocent Kashmiris with impunity, every day,” the FO said.

It recalled that India in 2019 acquitted Swami Aseemanand, the main character of the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast that killed 43 Pakistani citizens on Indian soil.

Earlier this year, the Indian courts released 11 convicts of the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case during the 2002 Godhra riots in Gujarat.

Similarly, during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks trial, India deliberately withheld witnesses and credible evidence from Pakistani courts, despite repeated requests over the last 14 years, only to drag and perpetuate the case to serve its sinister political agenda.

The FO stressed that India’s involvement in inciting terrorism inside Pakistan was widely established and documented. In November 2020, it said, Pakistan had released a comprehensive dossier providing evidence of India’s involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan.

It mentioned that the convicted serving Indian Naval commander Kulbhushan Yadav was undeniable proof of India’s direct involvement in sabotage and terror.

“Indian links to TTP and other elements inimical to Pakistan inside Afghanistan are also well known,” it added.

“Pakistan urges upon the international community to hold India accountable for its actions in IIOJK, its patronage of terrorist entities and for fomenting terror in neighboring countries,” the FO said.

It said that India was also advised to immediately reform and rectify its own credentials on terrorism and desist from shamelessly leveling false accusations against Pakistan for selfish political interests.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2022