Describing India as a “rogue” state, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar on Wednesday slammed New Delhi for its “nefarious terror activities in Pakistan,” adding that the neighboring state projected itself as the “greatest victim” of terrorism while perpetrating it.
“Nobody is willing to call the bluff,” she told a press conference in Islamabad. “Nobody is willing to call out the clear simple glaring hypocrisy in this whole act,” she added, expanding on earlier claims from Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, who had said India was involved in “all sorts of terrorist activities” in Pakistan.
Acknowledging that the global community often ignored India’s terrorism, Khar hoped her press interaction and a concerted national effort would bring the world’s attention to Delhi’s actions and “encourage them to see things based on evidence.” She said that Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan would continue this by meeting members of the diplomatic corps in Islamabad and sharing Pakistan’s dossier on last year’s bombing in Johar Town that left three dead and 21 injured.
“This dossier has detailed evidence of how India has been found to be fully behind this incident that led to this loss of life,” Khar said of the Johar Town bombing, adding that unlike India, Pakistan only blames other nations for extremism when it has solid evidence to back up its claims.
“We waited till we had strong, hard evidence to be making the case we are making today,” she said, stressing the Lahore bombing had “clear evidence” that India had planned and support the attack. “It reflects India’s persistent hostility towards Pakistan and the use of terrorist proxies to achieve nefarious objectives,” she said, adding that Islamabad believes such activities posed a regional threat and would impact India alongside Pakistan.
Referring to Sanaullah’s press conference with a senior official of the Counter-Terrorism Department, she said the perpetrators of the Lahore bombing had been brought to justice. “The masterminds and the facilitators remain at large and under Indian state patronage and protection,” she lamented, while maintaining that the Government of Pakistan would pursue this “relentlessly.”
Regretting that New Delhi often uses terrorist proxies and gives blatant support to Baloch militant groups, she said this indicated an intent to “ruin the peace in Pakistan” through terrorism. India, she alleged, facilitated its actions by consistently paralyzing attempts by the U.N. Security Council to sanction the listing of terrorists aided and financed by the state of India. “I have four names here which are of Indian nationals whose listing has been blocked by India: Gobinda Patnaik, Parthasarathy, Rajesh Kumar, and Dungara,” she said.
Khar noted that the Lahore bombing, the Samjhota incident, and the Khulbushan Jadhav case all indicated that New Delhi tried to project itself a victim of terrorism to gain sympathy. “No country has used terrorism better for their benefit than India,” she alleged, questioning why India was not involved in international counter-terrorism efforts. “When you compare Pakistan and India, Pakistan is always on the forefront of counter-terrorism, ensuring that terrorism doesn’t haunt us,” she said.
According to the state minister, India similarly diverts attention from state-sponsored terrorism and human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “India continues to be what I call a rogue state,” she said, as she advised the neighboring state to stop facilitating terrorism. “India’s unabated slip into the abyss of extremism is being clouded by this growing ‘Emerging India’ narrative,” she claimed, and called on the U.N. and Financial Action Task Force to hold India accountable for its terrorist actions.
“The Lahore incident is a test case for us on the credibility and integrity of international counter-terrorism and counter-financing terrorism regime,” she added.
Press questions
To a question, Khar said it was easy to avoid blame if there was no evidence, but the Lahore bombing had clear links to an Indian agent, proving New Delhi was sponsoring terrorism. “In the last three years, 211 individuals of law enforcement agencies have been attacked through RAW-sponsored attacks. There have been 1,213 attacks in Pakistan in the last three years where we have evidence that they were RAW-sponsored,” she said, referring to the Indian intelligence agency.
According to Khar, there is evidence linking India to attacks on the Pearl Continental Hotel, Gwadar (May 11, 2019); Chinese Consulate, Karachi (Nov. 23, 2018); oil exploration company, Gwadar (Oct. 15, 2020); suicide attack in Gwadar (Aug. 20, 2021); suicide attack on Frontier Corps in Panjgur and Noshki (Feb. 2, 2022). “How much is too much? And is this not too much? And how can we allow a country to use the terrorism drum on a platform like the Security Council,” she said, adding that countries like India raised questions on the credibility of U.N. institutions.
To another question, the state minister acknowledged that even though Pakistan has made a good case about India’s terrorism on international forums, political and economic elements prevented the global community from taking any cognizance.