Pakistan accuses India of involvement in destablising Balochistan

Pakistan on Thursday accused India of fanning terrorism in the country, and said New Delhi's involvement in destabilising Balochistan is very clear.

Foreign office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan also alleged that India has been running a global assassination campaign sponsored from their country.

Indian involvement is clear. They have been involved in terrorism in Pakistan. And secondly, it's not just Pakistan, they have been trying to destabilise the entire region, all South Asian countries, Khan told a weekly press briefing here.

India's involvement in fanning terrorism in Pakistan, and its involvement in destabilising Balochistan is very clear to us, he said.

The remarks come days after Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants ambushed the Jaffar Express in Bolan district of Balochistan on March 11. The militants killed 21 passengers and four paramilitary soldiers before the Army eliminated all 33 terrorists on March 12.

Khan said that India never condemned the attack on Jaffar Express.

Pakistan had made a similar allegation last week, triggering a sharp reaction from New Delhi.

"The whole world knows where the epicentre of global terrorism lies," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on March 14. "Pakistan should look inwards instead of pointing fingers and shifting the blame for its own internal problems and failures on others."  Talking about the Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's remarks at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, Foreign Office spokesperson Khan said that Pakistan was alarmed that the frequency of Indian leadership's unwarranted assertions about Jammu and Kashmir has increased.

It was India that took the Jammu and Kashmir issue to the United Nations in 1948. Today, it has no right to blame the Security Council and its erstwhile members for the resolutions that were subsequently adopted, he said.

The spokesperson also said that Pakistan believes in peaceful co-existence. However, a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people, is essential for a lasting peace in South Asia.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir was, is and shall forever remain an integral part of the country.