Delhi: A day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made a strong pitch at the United Nations to isolate nations who speak the language of terrorism, it was reported on Wednesday that Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja M Asif, in what many would call bizarre, accused India of being involved in the many terror attacks that have plagued his country for several years.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Not only this, Asif has claimed that the deadly terror strike on an Army base in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri was "self-generated" by India.


"India has been involved for several years in the many attacks that have taken place in Pakistan. And I firmly believe that the entire Uri incident is self-generated by India," Asif said in an interview to a Pakistani TV channel, as per ANI.


Moreover, following the Uri attack, the Defence Minister in a late night tweet had stated that blaming Pakistan for Uri and any attempt to escalate tension to deflect attention from state terrorism in Kashmir, would "prove expensive for Indians".


Earlier, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had stated that Indian`s assertion that Islamabad was behind the Uri attack, was New Delhi`s "long-time habit".


However, three days after the Uri attack in which 18 Army soldiers lost their lives, India had summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and presented evidence of Pakistan`s role in it as other strikes like Pathankot.


Displaying a list of proofs nailing Pakistan`s involvement in the attack, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Vikas Swarup had emphasised that a number of items - 1. GPS from the bodies of terrorists with coordinates that indicate the point and time of infiltration across the LoC and the subsequent route to the terror attack site, 2. Grenades with Pakistani markings, 3. Communication matrix sheets, 4. Communication equipment, 5. Other stores made in Pakistan, including food, medicines and clothes.


Calling on the Pakistan government to take active involvement into the investigation of the attacks, the MEA spokesperson had said that if Islamabad wishes to investigate cross-border attacks, India was ready to provide fingerprints and DNA samples of those terrorists killed in the Uri and Poonch incidents.


Sushma Swaraj slams Pakistan at UN, asks Pakistan to stop dreaming of Kashmir


On the other hand, yesterday, in a sharp rebuke to Sharif's "tirade" on Kashmir, India had said that those accusing others of rights violations must introspect as it censured Pakistan for the first time at the UNGA for perpetrating the "worst form of state oppression" in Balochistan.


Taking a veiled dig at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in her address at the 71st UN General Assembly (UNGA) session had said there were nations "in our midst" where UN designated terrorists roamed freely and delivered "their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity", an apparent reference to Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.


"In our midst, there are nations that still speak the language of terrorism, that nurture it, peddle it, and export it. To shelter terrorists has become their calling card. We must identify these nations and hold them to account," Swaraj had asserted in her nearly 20-minute speech.


"These nations, in which UN designated terrorists roam freely, lead processions and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity, are as culpable as the very terrorists they harbour. Such countries should have no place in the comity of nations," Swaraj had said, as per PTI.


In a strong rebuttal of the "baseless allegations" made by Sharif from the podium of the General Assembly about human rights violations by India in Kashmir, Swaraj had said, "I can only say that those accusing others of human rights violations would do well to introspect and see what egregious abuses they are perpetrating in their own country, including in Balochistan. The brutality against the Baloch people represents the worst form of state oppression."


Her speech came just over a week after 18 Indian jawans were killed in a deadly attack by Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists from across the border on an Army base in Kashmir's Uri.


Four terrorists were also killed by the Army.


(With Agency inputs)