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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has categorically rejected the “gratuitous” remarks by the Spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs regarding the state of minorities in the country.
In a statement on Friday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said India is perpetrating unabated state terrorism in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and systematic state-sponsored discrimination against its own minorities. Therefore, India is in no position to pontificate on the issue of terrorism or minority rights elsewhere.
The spokesperson said the fabricated accusations by India will not turn falsehood into truth. “Such desperate attempts will not succeed in diverting attention from India’s domestic and foreign policy failures. If anything, these will further undermine India’s credibility as a responsible country,” he said.
He said India must eschew the use of state-terrorism as an instrument of state policy, end its egregious violations of human rights, resolve the Jammu & Kashmir dispute and take concrete steps to safeguard the minorities including their right to life and protection of their places of worship.
Indian spokesman Anurag Srivastav had criticised the killing of an 82-year-old man due to his Ahmadi faith in Peshawar, calling it a “sad reflection of the state of minorities in Pakistan”.
Mahboob Khan was shot dead at a bus terminal in Peshawar on Sunday. Four days later, the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson took note of the killing and said theat Pakistan has witnessed the “space for people from the minority community to practise their religion shrink continuously”.
“We have been consistently raising the issue of the safety, security and well-being of minority communities with the Government of Pakistan,” added the Indian diplomat. The Pakistani Foreign Office took exception to the comments of the Indian spokesman.
