Parrikar's statement 'unfortunate', says Pakistan

Pakistan on Thursday criticised Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's statement on the Pathankot airbase attack and termed it as "unfortunate".

"The blame game is very unfortunate and unhelpful," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammed Nafees Zakaria said during the weekly briefing.

Parrikar on Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha in response to a supplementary question asked by a Shiv Sena member that while Pakistani non-state actors were definitely responsible for the attack, they could not have functioned smoothly without assistance from state actors.

The foreign office spokesperson said that Pakistan believes "all nations need to cooperate with each other to defeat the menace of terrorism".

Reiterating that Pakistan condemned the Pathankot airbase attack, Zakaria said, "the prime minister called (Indian prime minister) to assure cooperation, we took all necessary measures on the basis of preliminary information provided by India."

"JIT (Joint Investigating Team) has been formed and modalities are being worked out for the visit of the team to India. Cooperation and understanding is the need of the hour," the spokesperson added.