The Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday rejected the statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari\u2019s remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a \u201creflection of India\u2019s growing frustration\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, FM Bilawal had described Modi as the \u201cbutcher of Gujarat\u201d while responding to his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at the United Nations after he accused Pakistan of perpetuating terrorism and sheltering al-Qaeda honcho Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to remind Mr Jaishankar that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the prime minister (of India),\u201d Bilawal had said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Narendra Modi) was banned from entering this country (the United States). These are the prime minister and foreign minister of RSS, which draws inspiration from Hitler\u2019s SS,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, in a statement issued yesterday, the Indian government heavily criticised Bilawal\u2019s remarks. According to NDTV, the Indian foreign ministry said that Pakistan \u201clacked the credentials to cast aspersions at India\u201d.<\/p>\n
Separately, furious BJP workers led a march to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.<\/p>\n
Retorting to the statement today, FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said: \u201cThe Indian government has tried to hide behind subterfuge and canard to conceal the realities of the 2002 Gujarat massacre.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a shameful story of mass killings, lynching, rape and plunder. The fact of the matter is that the masterminds of the Gujarat massacre have escaped justice and now hold key government positions in India,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Baloch stressed that no verbosity could hide the crimes of the \u201cSaffron terrorists\u201d in India. \u201cHindutva, the political ideology of the ruling party, has given rise to a climate of hate, divisiveness and impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on to say that the culture of impunity was \u201cdeeply embedded\u201d in the Hindutva-driven polity in India.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe acquittal of the mastermind and perpetrators of the heinous attack on Delhi-Lahore Samjhota Express, that killed 40 Pakistani nationals on Indian soil, demonstrates the massacre of justice under the RSS-BJP dispensation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FO spokesperson said intimidation and demonisation of religious minorities received official patronage in states across India.<\/p>\n
Hindutva supremacists have been unleashed to exercise cow vigilantism, ransack places of worship, and attack religious congregations, she added.<\/p>\n
Baloch pointed out that while India peddled a \u201cfictitious narrative of victimhood\u201d, the country itself was a \u201cperpetrator of repression in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and a sponsor and financier of terrorist groups in South Asia\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly this week, a dossier was released containing irrefutable evidence that substantiated India\u2019s involvement in the 2021 terrorist attack in a peaceful Lahore neighbourhood. The evidence gathered with international support confirms that the Lahore attack was instigated, planned and financed by the Indian state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s statement on Friday, the FO spokesperson continued, was also a reflection of India\u2019s growing frustration over its failure in maligning and isolating Pakistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter being unable to prevent Pakistan\u2019s exit from the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) Grey List in October and international recognition of Pakistan\u2019s counterterrorism efforts, India is desperately using international platforms to advance its agenda to defame and target Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that for a country with a \u201cgrandiose vision about itself and its place in the world\u201d, India was following a policy of pettiness towards its neighbours.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that the international community would look through this facade and the dream of RSS-BJP to turn South Asia in its image will remain unrealised,\u201d Baloch concluded in the statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday rejected the statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari\u2019s remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a \u201creflection of India\u2019s growing frustration\u201d. On Thursday, FM Bilawal had described Modi as the \u201cbutcher of Gujarat\u201d while responding to his Indian counterpart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-301779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n