Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday slammed the US and India for issuing a joint statement urging Pakistan to make sure that its territory is not utilized to conduct terrorist activities.
In an apparent bid to use the visit to further India’s agenda against Islamabad, a joint statement issued by the two heads of state late on Thursday called on Pakistan to crack down on extremists that target New Delhi.
The statement called for action against extremist groups based in Pakistan such as the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The irony of this statement coming during the visit of someone who was banned entry to the U.S. for overseeing a pogrom of Muslims when he was CM Gujarat. He leads yet another campaign of state sponsored terrorism in Kashmir, which includes routinely maiming and blinding the…
— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) June 23, 2023
Asif took strong exception to the statement as he pointed out “the 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”.
Lamenting the actions of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet, the minister said that “he leads yet another campaign of state-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir, which includes routinely maiming and blinding the local population”.
“Across the rest of the country, Modi’s acolytes lynch Muslims, Christians, and other minorities, with impunity,” he added.
The defense minister also stressed that “Pakistan has lost countless lives, and has been continuously at war with terrorism for decades now, owing to failed American interventions in the region”.
“Perhaps President Biden should consider these facts the next time he fetes the Butcher of Gujarat,” Asif said.
