Pakistan rejects Indian criticism on Bilawal’s remarks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rejected Indian criticism of observations made by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, terming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “Butcher of Gujarat”.

In a press briefing in New York a day earlier, Bilawal had said, “Osama Bin Laden is dead but the Butcher of Gujarat and the prime minister of India is alive. The prime minister and foreign minister are of RSS which derives inspiration from Hitler.” He said the RSS (Rashtria Sevak Sangh) did not believe in the ideology of Gandhi but instead treated his killer as a hero. It evoked official Indian as well the extremist Hindu BJP’s rage against Pakistan and its foreign minister.

Official sources termed the Indian reaction out of place since the title has been the hallmark of Modi across India and several Indian leaders also call him so.

Indian official media reported on Friday that in a strong condemnation, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Pakistan foreign minister’s “frustration” would be better directed towards the masterminds of “terrorist enterprises” in his own country. The Pakistan foreign minister had resorted to the personal attack against Modi and slammed the RSS after External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar highlighted Pakistan’s alleged support to error groups and described the country as the “epicentre of terrorism”. Jaishankar told the United Nations Security Council that the “contemporary epicentre of terrorism” remains very much active and called for collective action to tackle it. Though he did not name any country, it was apparent that he was making a veiled reference to Pakistan. Later, Jaishankar told reporters that the world “sees Pakistan as the epicentre of terrorism.”