ISLAMABAD: After Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Vice Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday allegedly called for joint talks between the US and India regarding cross-border terrorism. Condemned the statement issued as “, saying it had “no mention of human rights”.
In a joint statement on Friday, US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to “launch terrorist attacks”.
Reacting to the “unnecessary and misleading” statement by the Foreign Office, Shah said that Biden’s meeting with Modi had “saddened” Pakistanis, who were accused of pushing India’s agenda against Islamabad. He visited Washington.
The PTI leader’s comment came while talking to media persons outside the Anti-Terrorism Court in Islamabad.
Qureshi, a foreign relations veteran who has served twice as foreign minister, lamented that the US-India statement was silent on human rights violations by New Delhi.
“No voice has been raised on the atrocities against Muslims in India’s illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK),” Qureshi said.
He condemned that all human rights organizations are silent on this issue.
On Friday, Bilawal told parliamentarians that he believed “it is important for Pakistan to stay away from world politics and focus on itself”.
“I don’t think there is any reason for Pakistan to be insecure about its relationship with the world or its bilateral partnership with the US as a result of the increasingly close cooperation between the US and India,” the foreign minister said. He further said that Pakistan was standing on its feet yesterday and is still standing today.
Reprimanding India for including Pakistan’s name in the statement, the foreign minister expressed concern that since he took office and the world has left Afghanistan, terrorism is on the back and Ukraine is the main issue.
No one is paying attention to terrorism. It is very easy to add to your statement that “Terrorism must be dealt with”.
Earlier, Asif, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said that “terrorism entered Pakistan because [the country] acted as an ally of the US in the war against terrorism.”
The Foreign Office (FO) also termed the US-India joint statement as “misleading and unnecessary”, saying “the reference is against diplomatic norms and has political implications”.
Joint statement
In a joint statement, the US president and the Indian prime minister called for action against militant groups allegedly based in Pakistan such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
A 58-point statement issued by the White House said, “They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and demanded immediate action from Pakistan to ensure that No territory under its control should be used for terrorist attacks.
Biden and Modi reiterated their call for concrete action against all UN-listed terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, ISIS and Hizbul Mujahideen.
He called for bringing to light those responsible for attacks including the bloody Mumbai siege and Pathankot incidents in 2008.
