The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said that Pakistan had evidence of calls related to the Jaffar Express hijacking incident being traced to Afghanistan but reaffirmed that it was India that was trying to “destabilise its neighboring countries”.
During a weekly press briefing , Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan was questioned whether Pakistan had a shift in stance from India to Afghanistan over involvement in terrorist attacks on Pakistan.
In response, he said, “There is no shift in our policy. And again, the facts have not changed. India is involved in sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan. What I was referring to was, in this particular incident, we have evidence of calls being traced to Afghanistan. This is what I said.”
Khan added that Pakistan had been a victim of terrorism that was planned, orchestrated and sponsored by forces who were operating outside the country’s borders.
‘In our region, unfortunately, we have many forces against peace who do not want to see Pakistan reap the dividends of its unprecedented and sincere efforts in counter-terrorism and in building a peaceful region,” he said. The spokesperson added that the terrorist attack against Jaffar Express was also “orchestrated and directed by terrorist ring leaders operating from abroad”.
“Our security forces successfully eliminated all 33 terrorists, including suicide bombers, while rescuing the hostages,” the spokesperson said.
“Terrorists were in direct communications with Afghanistan-based planners throughout the incident,” he said.
The spokesperson urged Afghanistan to hold perpetrators, organisers, and financiers of this “reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and cooperate with the government” to bring all those who are concerned with this attack, including the real sponsors of terrorism, to justice.
“We know how India has been trying to destabilise its neighbouring countries,” he said, adding that India has been running a global assassination campaign.
Khan said that Pakistan’s basic approach towards Afghanistan centred on developing friendly, cooperative relations, which remained the key goal.
“We have long-standing relations with Afghanistan, and there are layers of complementarities between the two countries like language, history, cultural affinity, and religion, but the terrorism remains the core obstacle, which is preventing the relations to develop further,” he said.
He said that the relations between the two countries were dynamic and the state kept adjusting it, adding that the FO will brief on the details in the days to come. “Regarding dialogue with Afghanistan, we do not have any high-level interaction, but embassies of both countries are working, and diplomatic channels are active,” he said. He said that terrorist elements like TTP and other terrorist organisations enjoyed sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
“This remains a stumbling block, a serious problem on the way of promoting deeper friendly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said. “We have been pressing Afghan authorities to tackle and handle this problem, and we will continue to press them to take necessary actions in this regard,” he added.
Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday called for national unity and dialogue against the menace of terrorism in the country following the hijacking of a Jaffar Express train in Balochistan’s Bolan district.
PM Shehbaz arrived in Quetta on a one-day visit earlier in the day in tow with federal ministers and other officials, chairing a high-level meeting to review the security situation.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, the premier said, “The officials have gathered at a time when the entire nation is mourning the attack.”
PM Shehbaz called for Pakistan’s entire political leadership to sit down together with the military leadership to discuss the challenges that the country was facing. “One challenge, in my view, is that there should have been complete unity on this [incident], but unfortunately, there is a gap.”
The premier said he would call a meeting for consultation to decide the next course of action.
Lashing out at the terrorists, he said they didn’t even care about the sanctity of the holy month of Ramazan and made innocent citizens hostage while martyring some of them. “Such an incident has maybe never happened before in Pakistan’s history,” he said.
The premier said that the government might have saved the lives of its citizens in the recent incident, but the nation could not afford to experience a similar event again.
“For that, we must all play our role,” referring to the federal and all provincial authorities. The prime minister asserted that the entire country could not prosper and develop if Balochistan’s pace of development did not catch up to the other provinces.
“Peace can’t be established in Pakistan until terrorism is completely eliminated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.” The prime minister criticised the PTI government for its measure to resettle fighters of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in the country after an agreement with the group, saying the move was to blame for the rise of terrorism again.
PM Shehbaz lauded the security forces for their role and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism, criticising a certain “segment” in the country for its “poisonous” rhetoric amid the situation. He maintained that a similar narrative was adopted and disseminated by the Indian media.
The premier said there could be no greater act of enmity against the state than to make fun of and mock the same security forces and personnel who were rendering sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. “No one can be given the licence to spread poisonous propaganda against our soldiers who go to the borders and sacrifice their lives. This is not acceptable, this will not be tolerated and these sacrifices will not go to waste. “Pakistan’s peace and prosperity are linked to it. There will be no prosperity without peace,” the premier asserted.
