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HomeDiplomacyPakistan evading responsibility on Pulwama despite India producing enough proof, says MEA

Pakistan evading responsibility on Pulwama despite India producing enough proof, says MEA

MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava says Pakistan has never taken any credible and verifiable action against terror entities or listed individuals.

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New Delhi: Two days after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a charge sheet on the February 2019 Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel, India said Pakistan continues to “evade responsibility” despite New Delhi producing enough evidence.

The NIA, in its 5,000-page charge sheet filed Tuesday, named Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar and others for “carrying out the attack at the behest of Pakistan”.

“Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed the responsibility for the Pulwama attack. The organisation and its leadership is in Pakistan. It is regrettable that Masood Azhar, the first accused in the charge sheet, continues to find shelter in Pakistan. Enough evidence has been shared with Pakistan, but it continues to evade responsibility,” Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said in a media briefing.

“The charge sheet has been filed after investigation of a year and a half… It has been filed to address the act of terrorism and to bring perpetrators of such a heinous crime to justice. Our aim is not to simply issue statements or notifications.”

Srivastava reiterated that Pakistan has, till date, not taken any “credible action” against perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack of 2008, which killed 165 people, including 25 foreign nationals.


Also read: Afghanistan training, help from 12 Kashmiris, RDX from Pakistan — how Pulwama was ‘planned’


Pakistan’s denial of Dawood presence

On the issue of Pakistan’s foreign ministry denying the presence of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in the country, the MEA said Islamabad’s assertion “lays bare the insincerity of Pakistan in responding to legitimate expectations of the world that they will track down international terrorists based on its soil”.

The Imran Khan government had, on 18 August, issued two notifications, or Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs), giving details of the present status of 88 terrorists and their entities, including Dawood, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and JeM leader Masood Azhar, to the United Nations. It also gave details about the Taliban, the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, which are already proscribed in the UN Security Council’s sanctions list.

Then, Sunday, Pakistan distanced itself from the controversy surrounding the presence of Dawood on its soil, and said issuing the list was a “routine exercise”.

“Pakistan has not only maintained its opposition to this international consensus (on tracking down terrorists), but has also chosen not to act against them,” Srivastava said, adding that the country has “never taken any credible and verifiable action against terror entities or listed individuals, including the most wanted ones”.

“This subsequent denial by their foreign office calls into question their intentions, and it will not mislead the world community into believing its propaganda. Pakistan must take credible action and ensure that the listed individuals are prosecuted,” Srivastava highlighted.


Also read: Pakistanis know a lot about Dawood Ibrahim. The don lives in White House, drives a black taxi


 

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