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‘Predictable tactic’: India on Shehbaz Sharif effort to link Delhi to Pak blast
A majority of recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan have been carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, which has safe havens in northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday dismissed Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s claim that rebels with Indian support were behind two terror attacks in the neighbouring country, with the external affairs ministry accusing Islamabad of concocting “false narrative” to deflect attention from a power grab by the Pakistani military.
Sharif had claimed that terrorists with Indian backing were responsible for suicide attack outside a court complex in Islamabad that killed 12 people and another assault on an army-run cadet college at Wana in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. He had claimed that terrorists based in Afghanistan and instigated by India were responsible for the second attack.
“India unequivocally rejects the baseless and unfounded allegations being made by an obviously delirious Pakistani leadership,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to the remarks made by the Pakistani leadership.
“It is a predictable tactic by Pakistan to concoct false narratives against India in order to deflect the attention of its own public from the ongoing military-inspired constitutional subversion and power-grab unfolding within the country,” Jaiswal said, referring to a proposed constitutional amendment to give the Pakistan Army chief control over all three services through the new post of Chief of Defence Forces (CDF).
“The international community is well aware of the reality and will not be misled by Pakistan’s desperate diversionary ploys,” he added.
Shehbaz had condemned terrorist attacks on unarmed citizens and ordered an investigation into the incidents. He also said it was “time for the world to condemn such nefarious conspiracies of India” and that both attacks were the “worst example of Indian state terrorism in the region”.
A majority of recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan have been carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, which has safe havens in the country’s restive northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.
