When questioned about New Delhi’s role in the Lahore explosion, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said India is trying to divert attention from its internal issues by sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan. Pakistan’s FM said that the country will reveal how India finances terrorism in other countries.
“We will raise this issue at international forums,” FM Qureshi stressed, speaking to Geo Pakistan earlier today.
National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf stated on Sunday that the primary mastermind behind the attack was an Indian citizen who has ties to India, according to the inquiry.
“I want to make sure that our message is heard very clearly [regarding] this particular incident on the 23rd of June in Lahore. We have concrete evidence and intelligence, including financial and telephone records, which point to direct Indian sponsorship of these terrorists,” he had said while briefing the nation about the incident.
When questioned about India’s Kashmir policy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Kashmiri lawmakers, FM Qureshi said New Delhi had failed miserably and that the Kashmiri leaders he met had voiced their displeasure with the situation in the occupied region.
“India is grappling with the financial crisis, unemployment has increased there [occupied Kashmir] and to divert attention from their internal issues, they are doing this [sponsoring terrorism].”
Regarding Afghanistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan has aided its Afghan brothers in their time of need, and now it is time for them to return home.
NSA Moeed Yusuf gave a comprehensive account of the Indian involvement in the Johar Town explosion at a news briefing in Islamabad.
“I want to make sure that our message is heard very clearly [regarding] this particular incident on the 23rd of June in Lahore. We have concrete evidence and intelligence, including financial and telephone records that point to direct Indian sponsorship of these terrorists.
“We have identified the main mastermind and the handlers of this terrorist attack through forensic analysis and electronic equipment recovered from these terrorists, and we have absolutely no doubt or reservation in informing you that the main mastermind belongs to RAW, the Indian intelligence agency, is an Indian national, and is based in India,” he had said.
Yusuf had said that he would like to remind everyone that “Indian use of territory and people of third countries, which actually embarrasses other countries, is not new”.
“We have been constantly reminding the world of Indian actions, including a detailed dossier that was put out last November with details — minute details — of finances, of action, of support coming from India,” the national security adviser had pointed out.
He also referred to a recent report by EU DisinfoLab, a well-known international organisation, which details how “hundreds and thousands of fake outlets were being used to malign Pakistan, spread misinformation about Pakistan, and hide what is actually a clear terrorist sponsorship by a state against another state in our region.”
