CHENNAI: A day after the deadly terror attack on the Army base in Uri for which India has held Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed responsible, the Pakistani media remained in denial and echoed its defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif who had said it could be an “inside job to malign the azaadi movement”.
“Uri is Indian false flag operation like Pathankot,” blared a headline on the front page of The News International. Brushing aside the attack in which 18 soldiers were killed as “another Indian drama”, the paper claimed India had attacked its own jawans to malign Pakistan and divert world attention away from Kashmir on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly session during which Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to mention Kashmir.
The paper even blamed “crafty Indian media” and claimed it was assisting the political and security establishment which “is notorious for designing bizarre pseudo operations so that it could defame Pakistan”.
Quoting sources in the Pakistani security establishment, the paper went on to say that the “Sikh-dominated army base” was targeted by India to divide Muslim and Sikhs and stop the latter from “supporting the Muslims’ struggle in Kashmir”.
The Dawn, more measured in its response, nevertheless blamed Indian authorities for accusing Pakistan and said it had plunged Indo-Pak relations into a dangerous phase. “Irrespective of what India thinks Pakistan has done or is doing, the Kashmir dispute is rooted in people’s genuine rejection of control by the state of India,” it claimed.