"I really don't see the basis for your question," Jaishankar
Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar took a swipe at his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, calling him “the promoter, justifier, and the spokesperson of a terrorism industry.”
Jaishankar hits out at Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at the SCO meeting
After a meeting with the foreign ministers of the member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa, Mr Jaishankar said, “Victims of terrorism do not sit together with its perpetrators to discuss terrorism.”
Hitting out at Pakistan’s minister Bhutto, the EAM said, “Bhutto Zardari came as Foreign Minister of an SCO member state; that’s part of multilateral diplomacy and we don’t see anything more than that.”
Reportedly, both of the two foreign ministers did not hold a bilateral at the SCO meeting.
“On terrorism, Pakistan’s credibility is depleting even faster than its forex reserves,” Mr Jaishankar said in a clear swipe at Pakistan’s struggle with a huge financial crisis that has forced the country to knock from door to door for loans.
Moreover, the minister of external affairs, S Jaishankar’s comments come on a day when five Indian Army personnel were killed in action during an operation to find terrorists hiding in a forest near Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch. The terrorists, suspected to be Pakistanis, had ambushed an army truck last week, killing five other soldiers.
India on Pak’s active involvement in supporting terrorism
Taking notes from the terror attacks, India has countless times proved active involvement of Pakistan in supporting terrorism on its soil to arm and send terrorists to Jammu and Kashmir. The United Nations designated global terrorist Masood Azhar, 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and many others are in Pakistan.
At the SCO meeting, foreign minister S Jaishankar called for united efforts to fight terrorism. He said taking eyes off terrorism would be bad for the SCO.
“We must not allow anybody – individual or state – to hide behind non-state actors… While the world was engaged in facing Covid and its consequences, the menace of terrorism continued unabated. Taking our eyes off this menace would be detrimental to our security interests,” he added.
Bhutto’s visit
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is the first Pakistani Foreign Minister to visit India in nearly 12 years. In 2011, then Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited India. The last minister-level visit from Pakistan was in 2016 by Sartaj Aziz.
