Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned the “terror attacks” across Lebanon that have left over 30 people killed and thousands more injured as various electronic devices detonate, with most experts pointing the finger at Israel.
Initially, thousands of pagers allegedly used by the Hezbollah group detonated, killing 12 people, including two children, and wounding nearly 3,000 others. Just a day later, another wave of explosions struck the funerals of the deceased, killing another 14 and injuring more than 450 others, triggering further condemnations of Israel.
“Pakistan strongly condemns this week’s attacks in Lebanon, carried through detonation of electronic equipment,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told a weekly press briefing. “Use of cyber and electronic means to commit terrorism in foreign countries is reprehensible,” she said.
“We condemn terrorism in all forms and manifestations and offer our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and the people and the government of the Republic of Lebanon,” she added.
Describing the attacks as a “manifestation of Israel’s alarming adventurism in the region,” Baloch said such assaults endangered regional peace and security. “Pakistan reaffirms its support to Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and calls upon the international community to take urgent steps to hold Israel to account on its acts of international terrorism and violations of international law,” she stressed.
Additionally, the spokesperson also condemned the Israeli airstrikes on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza. “The horrifying massacre—that also included deaths of staff—is yet another crime committed by Israel in Gaza since October last year,” she said. “These ongoing attacks on civilian targets including refugee camps also go against the spirit of ICJs provisional measures, which call for the provision of essential services and humanitarian assistance to address the challenges faced by the Palestinians in Gaza,” she said, adding Pakistan called for the full implementation of ICJ’s advisory opinion.
In its opinion, the ICJ had stressed upon the illegal nature of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Baloch said Pakistan saw an “urgent need for the international community to uphold the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people” through an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
The spokesperson also condemned elections in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), describing them as “farcical.” She said Pakistan wished to remind India of the region’s disputed status, adding there was no legal value to any “so-called” elections conducted under the Indian Election Constitution.
“The relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions clearly state that the final disposition of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute will be made in accordance with the will of the people, expressed via U.N.-supervised plebiscite. Any other process, therefore, cannot serve as substitute to the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people,” she said, adding an election conducted under excessive militarization cannot be said to be free or fair. “Pakistan will continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters for the just and peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions,” she added.