Pakistan warns India’s reckless conduct bringing two N-armed states closer to major conflict
Islamabad: Pakistan has expressed deep concern over India’s increasingly reckless conduct, warning that New Delhi’s jingoism has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict. Islamabad urged the international community to take serious note of India’s destabilizing actions.
According to Kashmir Media Service, addressing his weekly press briefing in Islamabad today, FO Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said that Indian actions represent a flagrant violation of the UN charter, international law, and established norms governing interstate relations.
“It is most unfortunate that India’s reckless conduct has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict,” he said, adding, “India’s jingoism and war hysteria should be a source of serious concern for the world”.
He said that in the wake of the Pahalgam attack, the Indian leadership has “once again used the bogey of terrorism to advance its sham narrative of victimhood, jeopardising regional peace.” The spokesperson reiterated that Pakistan rejected any attempt to link it to the attack in Pahalgam.
He noted that a number of countries and international organisations had called on both countries to exercise restraint over the past two weeks, and it was “highly deplorable that India did not pay heed to these calls”. “The international community should hold India accountable for its irresponsible, unlawful and belligerent conduct,” he said.
He rebutted referenced remarks made yesterday by India’s Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri during a press briefing. “The assertion that Pakistan escalated the situation through the Pahalgam attack of April 22 is totally absurd. To date, India has not been able to produce any credible and verifiable evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack.
“To the contrary, the acts of aggression committed by its armed forces had the approval and support of its entire government,” he said. “Thus, it is India that has escalated the situation by violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and killing civilians, including women and children”, adding that Pakistan reserves the right to take all measures in its self-defence as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter.
The spokesperson noted that on April 26, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had called for a “neutral and transparent” investigation into the Pahalgam attack, yet “India chose the path of belligerence and aggression.” He said, “…India is attempting to act as the judge, jury and executioner.”
He added that “while India portrays itself as a victim of terror, it conveniently ignores its own role in planning, sponsoring and abetting terrorism in Pakistan.”
Khan said that “the current Indian dispensation is bent upon weaponising water; holding in abeyance of IWT is unilateral and illegal. “Pakistan is an agrarian economy. Millions of people are dependent on the water being regulated by the treaty. The Indian decision is equivalent to an attack on the people of Pakistan and the economy.
He said India remains a permanent factor of instability in the region owing to its hegemonic ambitions and it has constantly been working to destabilise its smaller neighbours and has stonewalled all efforts to promote regional cooperation.
