ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday said India was in despair and trying to divert world attention from the Kashmir issue.
Chairing at a high-level meeting here, the FM said Pakistan desired peace but was always ready to defend the motherland.
Qureshi regretted that India’s Hindutva policies were threatening regional peace and stability.
“The international community should take notice of this tendency. This attitude (of India) is dangerous,” he warned. The FM said the irresponsible statements from the Indian officials showed New Delhi’s bewilderment. “The Indian government is using negative tactics to divert world attention from its internal situation,” he maintained.
Qureshi said Pakistan wanted peace and stability in the region but “India is continuously committing ceasefire violations on the Line of Control and targeting civilian population in sheer violation of international laws and fundamental human rights.”
He said Pakistan had already conveyed its concerns to the UN Secretary General, President of UN Security Council and Secretary General of Organization of Islamic Cooperation about Indian designs. Already heightened tensions between the two nations plummeted to a new low after New Delhi scrapped the longstanding special status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region last August following an air skirmish between the two air forces in February 2019.
Since then, border forces have been engaged in almost daily clashes along the Line of Control, a de facto border that splits the scenic Kashmir valley between the two countries. Expressing serious concerns about India’s ‘state-terrorism’ in the Himalayan valley, FM Qureshi rejected New Delhi’s efforts to “undermine Kashmiris” indigenous struggle against illegal Indian occupation and their brutalization by terming it as terrorism.”
The Foreign Minister reiterated that Pakistan will continue its sincere efforts for the success of Afghan peace process and stability in the region. The meeting held a detailed discussion on national security, regional stability, and overall situation in the area. Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on National Security Dr Moeed Yousaf and other high ranking officials attended the meeting.