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Tahir Andrabi speaks at the weekly press briefing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Photo file: X/FO
ISLAMABAD:
The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday rejected what it said were “baseless, misleading and unjustified” remarks by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs about Pakistan’s ongoing action against terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has carried out airstrikes against terrorist targets in Afghanistan as part of the now temporarily halted Operation Ghazab Lil Haq. On Tuesday, the Taliban regime’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat claimed in a post on X that an airstrike had hit the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, killing up to 400 people in the Afghan capital overnight.
However, Pakistan strongly rejected the Afghan Taliban’s claims, calling the allegations “completely baseless” and part of a wider pattern of disinformation aimed at distorting the facts.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had said the attacks carried out on the night of March 16 were “precise, deliberate and professional”, targeting only military and terrorist infrastructure linked to attacks inside Pakistan.
Responding to the Indian statement, spokesman Tahir Andrabi said: “Pakistan rejects the baseless, misleading and unjustified statement of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Pakistan’s ongoing action against terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan.
“Given India’s active sponsorship of terrorism targeting Pakistan from Afghan soil, as well as its historical role as a spoiler, this statement merely reflects India’s blatant hypocrisy and duplicity.”
It said it must be remembered that Indian leadership remained unaccountable despite “instrumentalizing Islamophobia for domestic electoral gain and committing pogroms against its Muslim population”.
The spokesman said its leadership only weeks ago pledged full and unequivocal support to “another occupying power responsible for the ongoing killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians”, apparently referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expressions of solidarity during a visit to Israel.
“It is absurd for a state that has historically undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighboring countries, in violation of international law and the principles of the UN Charter, to comment on the maintenance of such principles.
“Such statements cannot divert attention from the fact that India has been and continues to suppress and deny the right to self-determination of Kashmiris in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in violation of relevant UN resolutions,” it read.
He said India must desist from supporting and sponsoring terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil, including those listed under the UN Security Council sanctions list.
“In this regard, India should cease its misplaced lamentation over Pakistan’s successful counter-terrorism measures,” the statement concluded.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s foreign media spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, rejected the Afghan Taliban’s claims of targeting a hospital and civilians, adding that Pakistan’s latest strikes in Afghanistan were solely targeting terrorists and based on accurate intelligence, driven solely by the need to protect its citizens, Pakistani television reported.
