India on Tuesday dismissed Pakistan's fresh announcement of a seven million Pakistani rupees bounty for information on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as "gimmicks", calling on Islamabad to take concrete action against terrorism instead of making "phoney announcements".
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Pakistan's announcement had little credibility, noting that similar declarations had been made in the past.
"Such gimmicks and hoodwinking by Pakistan is nothing new. We have seen similar gimmicks in the past as well," Jaiswal said at his regular media briefing.
"For a state sponsor of terrorism to make such phoney announcements, we all know how hollow it is. Pakistan must take concrete action and not make phoney announcements. It is of no consequence," he said.
Azhar, the founder of the Pakistan-based JeM, remains wanted in India in connection with major terror attacks, including the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack and the 2019 Pulwama bombing.
He is also listed in Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency's Red Book of most-wanted terrorists.
India has long accused Pakistan of sheltering Azhar, while Islamabad has claimed that he fled to Afghanistan and has been operating from there. The Taliban government has repeatedly rejected the claim, with a senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official saying last week that Azhar was not in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's fresh bounty announcement comes ahead of a review of its anti-terror financing measures by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Pakistan was on the FATF grey list from 2018 to 2022 over deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing framework. Its failure to act against terror financing networks linked to JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba, as well as weak implementation of financial sanctions against UN-designated individuals, were among the concerns flagged during the review.
As part of its efforts to exit the grey list, Pakistan banned JeM and LeT and their affiliated fronts and convicted leaders of the groups. Azhar was convicted in absentia in 2021.
He was designated a global terrorist by the UN Security Council in May 2019.
Pakistan exited the grey list in 2022, subject to continued monitoring by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering on specific areas of its counter-terror financing efforts, including action against Azhar.
People tracking FATF's review said Pakistan had since backslid on some of the assurances it gave to secure its removal from the grey list.
(With inputs from PTI)