Pakistan Foreign Office calls allegations about mainstreaming terrorism "baseless"

The Pakistan Foreign Office has rejected as "baseless" allegations about it "mainstreaming of terrorism" in the wake of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed's recent rally in Lahore.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam also rejected the "equally baseless allegations and efforts to malign Pakistan by implicating it in the recent attacks" in Kashmir.

"Pakistan firmly rejects the baseless allegations about "mainstreaming of terrorism". Pakistan has been in the forefront of combating terrorism and is also its biggest victim. On the contrary, if any evidence of mainstreaming of terrorism in India was needed, one only had to look at the perpetrators of Samjohta Express terrorist attack and its masterminds," Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said in response to a question about the Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson's comments.

Aslam said that Pakistan took its obligations under the UN Security Council mandate very seriously, "unlike India as manifested by its failure to implement the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir".

"The recent verdict of court martial on fake encounter of 2010 exposes the hollowness of the Indian infiltration claims. The violence in IoK is the result of decades of repressive Indian policies and imposition of sham elections in IOK, an exercise in futility. India has to understand that the people of Jammu and Kashmir would accept nothing short of their right to self-determination, promised to them by the United Nations Security Council and accepted by India and the International community," said the spokesperson.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had on Friday termed the recent rally held by terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in Lahore as the mainstreaming of terror, adding that it was a blatant disregard of the global norms against terrorism.

"The 'istema' of the JuD is nothing short of mainstreaming of terrorism. This was an event that took place at a national monument in Pakistan. It was an event where large amounts of police personnel were deployed and was advertised all across Pakistan. It was an event by an organisation which is proscribed by India, the United States, the United Kingdom and by the United Nations under resolution 1267," MEA official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told the media.

"The event was addressed by an individual who is designated as a terrorist under the UN resolution. If these sorts of facilities are provided to a designated terrorist organisation or a designated terrorist entity, it is the mainstreaming of a terrorist. Obviously it means that this is a blatant disregard of the global norms against terrorism," he added.