Islamabad: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has written a letter to the United Nations Security Council accusing India of threatening regional security, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Friday, a day after the powerful UN body named Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in a statement condemning the “heinous” Pulwama attack perpetrated by the terror outfit in Jammu and Kashmir.
He also said India is accusing Pakistan for the Pulwama attack without any proof.
“It is with a sense of urgency that I draw your attention to the deteriorating security situation in our region resulting from Indian belligerence and threats of use of force against Pakistan. The situation poses a threat to international peace and security,” Qureshi said in the letter addressed to UNSC president Anatolio Ndong Mba.
He alleged that India is blaming Pakistan for the Pulwama attack “to cover up its own operational and policy failures”.
On Thursday, in a strong show of international support for India, the UNSC comprising 15 nations, including Pakistan’s key ally China, named JeM while condemning in the “strongest terms” the “heinous and cowardly” terror attack in Pulwama and stressed on the need to hold organisers and financiers of such “reprehensible acts” accountable and bring them to justice.
“The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all States…to cooperate actively with the Government of India and all other relevant authorities in this regard,” it said.
In his letter, Qureshi also accused the Indian government of using “water as a weapon”.
“The long-standing legal arrangements agreed under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) are thus being imperilled,” he said.
India has decided to “stop” the flow of its share of water to Pakistan from rivers under the Indus Water Treaty.
The reiteration to stop the flow of Indus water to Pakistan comes amid mounting Indo-Pak tension over the Pulwama terror strike that has triggered demands for action against the neighbouring country. India has already decided to revoke the Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan and mounted a diplomatic offensive to isolate it in the international community.
Qureshi said Pakistan has offered to cooperate with India if it shares any proof of involvement of Pakistani elements in the Pulwama attack.
“Pakistan has offered its cooperation, if tangible evidence emerging from credible investigation is shared,” he wrote.
India on Tuesday had said, “Disclaiming any link between the terrorist attack and Pakistan is an oft-repeated excuse by Pakistan.”
“It is a well-known fact that Jaish-e-Mohammad and its leader Masood Azhar are based in Pakistan. These should be sufficient proof for Pakistan to take action,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Qureshi said India “must refrain from escalating the situation and enter into dialogue with Pakistan” to ensure continued peace and stability in South Asia.
Also read: India won’t break Indus Water Treaty, but stop giving excess water to Pakistan
1. Pakistan’s Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is of course free to say whatever he wishes to say. I say that entire democratic world knows that the Foreign minister he is simply pretending not to know (a) that terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) operate freely from Pakistan and (b) that these terror groups are in business of creating trouble in India. 2. As it is, we know that JeM has already claimed responsibility for the PULWAMA suicide attack. Question is this: Can we ever trust PM or Foreign minister of Pakistan and the Pakistani establishment to eliminate bases of terror groups like JeM? Answer is an emphatic NO. 3. I think our political leadership and more particularly, former chief ministers of Jammu & Kashmir, Ms Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah should be very clear as regards ground realities with reference to the Kashmir issue. Realities are: (a) Pakistan’s army and its intelligent wing ISI will continue to give logistics, equipment and financial support to terror groups like LeT, JeM, and Pakistani Taliban. (b) Ordinary people of the Kashmir valley have been brainwashed by the separatists. (c) Politicians of Kashmir as also the ordinary people of Kashmir valley simply fail to understand that Pakistan would never give azadi to Kashmir. 4. India has to make sustainable efforts to minimize impact of activities of terror groups and for that our Army needs cooperation from ordinary people of the Kashmir valley. 5. Considering this scenario, I believe that it is for the separatists & people of Kashmir valley to decide what they wish to do: To wholeheartedly support our Army to so that terrorism is wiped out from Kashmir or to join those who provide support to terrorists and get killed at the hands of terrorists and terrorists’ supports.