NEW DELHI: India on Friday lit into Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for name-calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi, describing them as uncivilised comments. “These comments are a new low, even for Pakistan."
The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has obviously forgotten this day in 1971, which was a direct result of the genocide unleashed by Pakistani rulers against ethnic Bengalis and Hindus. Unfortunately, Pakistan does not seem to have changed much in the treatment of its minorities. It certainly lacks credentials to cast aspersions at India,’’ the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said.
Bhutto had in a New York press meet alleged that “Osama bin Laden is dead but the butcher of Gujarat is the PM of India.” In its strong pushback, the MEA said, “Pakistan’s indisputable role in sponsoring, harbouring, and actively financing terrorist and terrorist organisations remains under the scanner. Pakistan FM’s uncivilised outburst seems to be a result of Pakistan’s increasing inability to use terrorists and their proxies.’’
Cities like New York, Mumbai, Pulwama, Pathankot and London are among the many that bear the scars of Pakistan-sponsored, supported and instigated terrorism, it added. This violence, the foreign office pointed out, emanated from their Special Terrorist Zones and exported to all parts of the world. Make-in-Pakistan terror has to stop, it said acidly.
India underscored the point that Pakistan glorifies Osama bin Laden as a martyr and shelters terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim. “No other country can boast having 126 UN-designated terrorists and 27 UN-designated terrorist entities... “Clearly, the foreign minister was more interested in whitewashing Pakistan’s role,” the MEA said.