Pakistan, India enter into new diplomatic standoff

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – In a sign of a fresh uptick in already heightened tensions, Pakistan on Wednesday accused longtime rival India of being involved in "terrorist activities" on its soil.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar at a press conference in the capital Islamabad claimed that Pakistan has "cogent" evidence of alleged Indian involvement in terrorist activities, including the 2021 blast in the northeastern city of Lahore, which killed three people and injured 24 others.

This was the second press conference on the issue held by Pakistani government officials in the last 24 hours as on Tuesday the same accusations were leveled by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah.

The fresh flare-up followed separate statements from Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and General Officer-Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Northern Command of the Indian Army Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi on the status of the disputed Kashmir valley and Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region near the China border.

Singh, in October, said he hoped to have the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region soon to complete the mission that the BJP government began by annexing Indian-administered Kashmir in Aug. 2019, inviting ire from the international community, mainly Islamabad's longtime ally, China.

Endorsing Singh's statement, Lt-Gen. Dwivedi said earlier this month that the army was fully ready to implement the government's decision.

In a sharp reaction to the Indian officials' statements, Pakistan's newly appointed Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir said his country would respond to any "misadventure" with full might.

"We have noticed highly irresponsible statements from Indian leadership on GB and AJK (Azad Jammu and Kashmir) recently. Let me make it categorically clear, Pakistan's armed forces are ever ready, not only to defend every inch of our motherland but to take the fight back to the enemy, if ever, war is imposed on us," the military said in a statement, quoting Gen. Munir, who has also served as the head of the country's premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Relations between the two nuclear neighbors deteriorated further on Aug. 5, 2019, when India revoked Article 370 of its constitution, ending the Kashmir valley's special status, prompting Islamabad to downgrade its diplomatic mission in New Delhi and asking India to follow suit.

Last year, however, the two neighbors agreed to honor the 2003 cease-fire along the Line of Control (LoC) – a line that does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary but serves as the de facto border – followed by an exchange of letters between the two countries prime ministers and unconfirmed reports of "backdoor" contacts to defuse the escalating tensions.

Islamabad, nonetheless, reiterates that the normalization of ties with New Delhi is linked to the review of the Aug. 5 decision, and the ultimate resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

- 2021 explosion​​​​​​​

The new allegation stemmed from the July 2019 blast, which was believed to have targeted the residence of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the incarcerated leader of the banned Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) group, whom New Delhi blamed for masterminding several terrorist attacks on its soil.

In January of this year, a Pakistani court sentenced four people to death on nine counts for their involvement in a bombing in the northeastern city of Lahore last year.

A fifth suspect, the wife of one of the convicts, was sentenced to five years in jail for abetment in the crime.

Among those convicted was Peter Paul, a Pakistani Christian who, according to the prosecution, was involved in the terrorist attack's planning.

Pakistan accuses the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), of planning and executing the blast. New Delhi, however, has denied the charge.

"Those who have been convicted in this case are merely front men. The actual perpetrators are scot-free and are freely entering India," the junior foreign minister claimed in her Wednesday press conference.

"No country has used terrorism better than India," Khar charged, calling on the international community to take note of New Delhi’s "attempts to destabilize Pakistan."

Islamabad, she further said, has shared with the UN Security Council members a Nov. 2020 dossier accusing India of “actively planning, promoting, aiding, abetting, financing and execution of terrorist activities” on its soil.

Islamabad, she added, has shared a Nov. 2020 dossier with UN Security Council members accusing India of "actively planning, promoting, aiding, abetting, financing, and executing terrorist activities" on its soil.

She added that the dossier would be shared with the UN secretary-general as well.

India, however, denied the allegations and accused Islamabad of “patronizing” terrorism.

New Delhi blamed Hafiz Saeed for masterminding the 2008 Mumbai blasts that killed over 150 people.

In 2020, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced Hafiz Saeed to 11 years in jail in two terror-financing cases.
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