Imran Khan slams India; MEA hits back hard

New Delhi: Fishing in troubled waters, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday meekly toed the Pakistan Army line and claimed that atrocities are being perpetrated in J&K even as he remained silent on Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism. 

The Pakistan PM demanded that New Delhi resolve the Kashmir issue through a plebiscite conducted in Kashmir. Predictably, the tweet drew a sharp reaction from New Delhi late on Monday evening which termed the remarks “deeply regrettable”. 

India demanded instead that Pakistan take “credible action against all kind of support to terrorism and terror infrastructure from all territories under its control rather than supporting and glorifying terrorists and terror activities against India and its other neighbours”. 

Hitting back hard, New Delhi added that “Pakistan’s deceitful stand on dialogue, while supporting terror and violence, stands exposed to the whole world”.
This comes even as the Indian Army asked the Pakistan military “through established communication channels” to take back bodies of two “armed intruders” from that country who were killed in a gunfight along the Line of Control (LoC) in Sunderbani sector of Jammu on Sunday. 

Three Indian Army soldiers had also been killed in the encounter. Indian Army sources said a stern warning had been conveyed to the Pakistan Army to restrain the operation of terrorists from the soil of Pakistan or territory controlled by it.

Indian Army sources said that as per information received by them, there has been a “concentration of large number of terrorists in the launch pads desperate to infiltrate before the onset of snow”.

Sources also said the Pakistan Army has been “vigorously attempting to send terrorists across the LoC”. 

According to news agency reports, the intruders at Sunderbani were believed to be members of a Border Action Team comprising Pakistan Army soldiers and terrorists.

On Monday, the Pakistan PM tweeted, “Strongly condemn the new cycle of killings of innocent Kashmiris ... by Indian security forces. It is time India realised it must move to resolve the Kashmir dispute through dialogue in accordance with the (decades-old) UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.” Later on Monday, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also spewed venom against India.

In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs responded, saying, “The remarks made by Pakistan’s Prime Minister in his tweet are deeply regrettable. Instead of making comments on India ‘s internal affairs, Pakistan leadership should look inwards and address its own issues.