Syed Salahuddin's anti-India remarks highlights unabashed manner in which terrorist organisations enjoy freedom in Pakistan: MEA

The Centre on Monday condemned Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin's recent utterances against India.

Pic courtesy: ANI

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday that Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin's recent utterances against India only highlighted unabashed manner in which terrorist organisations and leaders enjoy freedom of operations in Pakistan.

India today asserted that the brazen admission by Salahuddin of perpetrating terror attacks on India and his confession of assistance from Pakistan was a proof of Islamabad's policy of cross-border terrorism.

At the same time, the confession affirms the complicity of Pakistan's state structure in using terrorist proxies as a matter of policy against the neighbours, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

"The brazen admission by Syed Salahuddin of perpetrating terrorist attacks on India and having the capacity to carry out such attacks at any place and time in India is a further proof of Pakistan?s continuing policy of cross border terrorism," he said.

Baglay demanded that Pakistan must give up its policy of cross-border terrorism, fulfill its obligations under international resolutions and stop all activities of terrorists from the territory under Pakistan's control.

On the other hand, the Centre too today said that Salahuddin's designation as a global terrorist by the United States was 'well deserved'.

Union Home Ministry spokesperson Ashok Prasad said the government had been describing Salahuddin as a terrorist all along, and his own remarks had confirmed that.

"His designation as a global terrorist by the US is well deserved," he told the media.

Prasad said Salahuddin was also 'instrumental' in providing funds to terrorists and separatists and giving other kinds of assistance to the militants, as per PTI.

What Salahuddin said against India:

"Till now our focus was on 'Indian occupation forces'. All the operations that we have done or are underway, we focus only on the installations of these 'occupational forces'," Salahuddin said in an interview with a Pakistani channel.

Asserting that Kashmir was his 'home', the Hizbul chief stated that the Valley was witnessing an 'uprising' since the 'killing' of Burhan Wani.

Further revealing that he has many 'supporters' in India, Salahuddin admitted to purchasing weapons from international markets, adding that he has the capacity to deliver weapons at any place if he is paid for it.

Informing that he carried out many 'operations' in India, he stated that the international scenario changed after 9/11.

"If we would have taken our operations out of Kashmir at that time, India would get a chance to label Kashmir-e-Tehreek a terrorist organisation. We have support and we can target any place in India, at anytime," he said, as per ANI.

The US had on June 26 designated Salahuddin,  who is based in Muzaffarabad, as a specially designated global terrorist, a move which was welcomed by India which had said that it underlined quite strongly that both the countries faced threat of terrorism.

As a consequence of this designation, US citizens are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with Salahuddin and all of his property and interests in property subject to United States jurisdiction are blocked.

Following the designation of Salahuddin as the global terrorist, the State Department in a notification had said that he had committed, or posed a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.

Designations of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system.

Moreover, designations can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other nations, it said.

(With Agency inputs)