By Muhammad Luqman
India is involved in grave human rights violations in the Occupied-Kashmir and as long as its forces are subjecting Kashmiris to atrocities, it cannot be considered a partner in bringing peace to the region, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said .
“A country [India] that is involved in state-sponsored terrorism [in occupied-Kashmir] can’t be seen as a partner in the quest for regional peace,” he pointed out in a weekly briefing in the capital Islamabad on Friday.
Zakaria said Pakistan was not under any compulsion to respond to US President Donald Trump’s accusations but the National Security Committee refuted them and it did so anyway.
He added that after a National Security Committee meeting, the PM House had issued a statement wherein all allegations levelled by the US against Pakistan had been rejected.
The spokesperson noted that Pakistan had worked with the US and cooperated with the latter on several occasions.
“We took indiscriminate action against terrorists and also took US senators to South Waziristan. The senators were satisfied with what they saw there,” he remarked.
On the importance of Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan, Zakaria said that no other country had as much stake in a peaceful Afghanistan as Pakistan did.
“Pakistan remains committed to making all efforts to contribute to peace and stability in Afghanistan for the sake of the Afghan people, regional peace and development in the interest of our own country and our people.”
Speaking on Trump’s remarks, the spokesperson said the international community has already acknowledged Pakistan’s immense sacrifices, economic losses and unprecedented contributions to the global counter-terrorism efforts.
Announcing the deployment of thousands of more troops in Afghanistan on August 22, Trump had lambasted Pakistan for harbouring “agents of chaos, violence, and terror,” saying the US could “no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organisations”.
