ISLAMABAD
\nDefence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday rebuked the United States and India for issuing a joint statement calling on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch extremist attacks.
\nAsif took strong exception to the statement as he pointed out \u201cthe irony of this statement coming during the visit of someone who was banned entry to the US for overseeing a pogrom of Muslims when he was CM Gujarat\u201d.
\nLamenting the actions of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet, the minister said that \u201che leads yet another campaign of state-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir, which includes routinely maiming and blinding the local population\u201d.
\n\u201cAcross the rest of the country, Modi\u2019s acolytes lynch Muslims, Christians, and other minorities, with impunity,\u201d he added.
\nThe defence minister also stressed that \u201cPakistan has lost countless lives, and has been continuously at war with terrorism for decades now, owing to failed American interventions in the region\u201d.
\n\u201cPerhaps President Biden should consider these facts the next time he fetes the Butcher of Gujarat,\u201d Asif said.
\nYesterday, the White House issueda statement saying that both Modi and Biden \u201cstrongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks\u201d.
\n\u201cPresident Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda, ISIS\/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen,\u201d the joint statement had said.
\nWashington wants India to be a strategic counterweight to China while Modi is seeking to raise the influence that his country, now the world\u2019s most populous, has on the world stage.
\nOn the other hand, relations between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan have been fraught for years. Since British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent ended in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir.
\nIndia has for years accused Pakistan of helping rebels who have battled Indian security forces in its part of Kashmir since the late 1980s. Pakistan denies the accusation and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support for Kashmiris seeking self-determination.
\nThe special status given to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked in 2019 when New Delhi split it into two federally controlled territories. Pakistan calls the moves illegal and wants them rolled back.
\nIndia\u2019s decision led the two countries to downgrade their diplomatic ties.
\nNotably, the defence minister had previously said that Pakistan did not have any issues with the partnership between the US and India \u2018as long as it does not come at the expense of Pakistan\u2019.
\nIn an interview with Newsweek, the minister emphasised the importance of maintaining positive relationships with neighbouring countries and regional partners, including India, particularly in the context of the Kashmir issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday rebuked the United States and India for issuing a joint statement calling on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch extremist attacks. Asif took strong exception to the statement as he pointed out \u201cthe irony of this statement coming during the visit of someone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-339573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n