India hiding behind ‘subterfuge’: MoFA

Pakistan on Saturday termed as attempt to ‘hide behind subterfuge’ a statement from India on Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s comments in New York holding India responsible for fomenting terrorism in Pakistan.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Saturday, Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that New Delhi was attempting to conceal the realities of the Gujarat massacre.

“It is a shameful story of mass killings, lynching, rape and plunder,” the statement said, adding that the masterminds of the Gujarat massacre not only escaped justice, but now hold key government positions in India.

“No verbosity can hide the crimes of the ‘Saffron terrorists’ in India,” the statement read, adding, “Hindutva, the political ideology of the ruling party, has given rise to a climate of hate, divisiveness and impunity.”

“The acquittal of the mastermind and perpetrators of the heinous attack on Delhi-Lahore Samjhota Express, that killed 40 Pakistani nationals on Indian soil, demonstrates the massacre of justice under the RSS-BJP dispensation,” Baloch said in the statement, adding that the culture of impunity is now deeply embedded in Hindutva-driven polity in India.

“Intimidation and demonization of religious minorities receives official patronage in states across India. Hindutva supremacists have been unleashed to exercise cow vigilantism, ransack places of worship, and attack religious congregations.”

Accusing New Delhi of peddling a fictitious narrative of victimhood, Baloch said that India is itself a perpetrator of repression in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and a sponsor and financier of terrorist groups in South Asia.

“Only this week, a dossier was released containing irrefutable evidence that substantiated India’s involvement in the 2021 terrorist attack in a peaceful Lahore neighborhood,” she said, adding that evidence gathered with international support confirms that the Lahore attack was instigated, planned and financed by the Indian state.

The statement was deemed a reflection of India’s growing frustration over its failure in maligning and isolating Pakistan.

“After being unable to prevent Pakistan’s exit from Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List in October and international recognition of Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts, India is desperately using international platforms to advance its agenda to defame and target Pakistan,” she said.

India was termed a country with a grandiose vision about itself and its place in the world but a country which follows a policy of pettiness towards its neighbors.

“We are confident that the international community would look through this facade and the dream of RSS-BJP to turn South Asia in its image will remain unrealized.”

On Friday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in a statement had accused Foreign Minister Bialwal Bhutto Zardari of making ‘uncivilized outburst’ as a result of Pakistan’s ‘increasing inability to use terrorists and their proxies’ and of attempting to ‘whitewashing’ Pakistan’s role.