Meddling in Gujarat polls: Pakistan, Manmohan Singh reject Modi’s allegations

Ag agencies

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has described Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s accusation of interference in the Gujarat elections as utterly baseless and irresponsible. Fomer prime minister of India Manmohan Singh had also rejected these charges.

In a tweet, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said India should stop dragging Pakistan into its electoral debate. He added that electoral victories should be won on one’s own strength rather than fabricated conspiracies.

His comments shared on Twitter came a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the Congress leaders had held a secret meeting with a Pakistani envoy and foreign minister of the neighbouring country before senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had called him a ‘neech aadmi’ (vile man).

“You people must have read the newspaper about the incident at Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house. It was an issue of hot debate in newspapers and media yesterday that a meeting between former Pakistan high commissioner, former minister for external affairs of Pakistan, former vice president Hamid Ansari and former PM Manmohan Singh was held at the Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house. The meeting had run for three hours and the next day he called him ‘neech’ (low born),” Indian newspaper Times of India quoted the prime minister as saying during a poll campaign in Palanpur on Sunday.

“This is an issue of serious concern when Pakistan has become a sensitive issue for the country, what was the reason to hold a secret meeting with Pakistan when the polls are being held in Gujarat,” said Modi.

Meanwhile, is India guilty of violating the 1992 India-Pakistan Agreement on Chemical Weapons under which both countries agreed “to never under any circumstances….develop, produce, or otherwise acquire chemical weapons?”

The convention comprehensively prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of chemical weapons. While as yet Pakistan has no proof and cannot verify that India is breaching the 1992 Agreement inside the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK), the government on Monday called for investigations by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and other independent bodies.

India has denied these allegations, while Pakistan has fallen short of formally moving the United Nations or the OPCW through its missions abroad. “We have noted with serious concern the media reports that you have referred to. Such reports need to be verified.

“The Indian policy of denying access to any independent observer raises legitimate concerns”, spokesman at the Foreign Office told The News. Recently, some very serious allegations have been hurled at the Modi government for targeting Kashmiris with chemical weapons. Modi has not shied away from maiming and blinding thousands of Kashmiris in IHK, with pellet guns and by using chilli based shells, which are PAVA ammunition and when fired, the shells which burst and temporarily stun, immobilise and paralyse the target, so these new allegations cannot be brushed aside easily.

Earlier in 1999, BBC News reported that Pakistan military officials alleged that India had launched shells containing chemical weapons across the LoC. Later, a Kashmiri leader in Azad Kashmir said that vast fields in the area had become infertile because of the use of chemical weapons.

In the summer of 2017, the Foreign Office claimed that Indian security forces were using deadly chemical weapons to kill Kashmiris and destroy their properties in the Indian-Held Kashmir (IHK).

“The accusation are based on the charred bodies of Kashmiri youth found in the debris of five houses destroyed by Indian forces at Bahmnoo and Kakapora in Pulwama. The bodies were extensively burnt and beyond visual recognition. Such a severe level of burning could only be possible when some chemicals were used by the occupation forces to destroy the houses. More similar attacks had been committed by the Indian Army at different places”, an official at the FO had claimed.

Last month Jamaatud Dawa (JD) chief Hafiz Saeed said that India is violating the international human rights law using 'chemical weapons' against the Kashmiris to suppress their freedom struggle.

On Sunday Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan claimed that Indian security forces are using "chemical weapons" against civilians in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). The AJK president, delivering a speech in Islamabad to mark International Human Rights Day, said that there have been a number of deaths due to the use of chemical weapons in IHK.

As the chorus of accusations becomes louder, world capitals have not made any public statements as they are used to rhetoric from both countries, but they shamed themselves when IHK faced genocide in the aftermath of the murder of Burhan Wani, by maintaining a stony silence.

“Should these reports of India using chemical weapons find credence, this use would constitute a breach of Indian international obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Similar reports had emerged a few months before. We call for independent investigations into such reports, including through OPCW”, the FO spokesman said.

At one stage the police chief in Kashmir Valley accused Pakistan of arming the Hizbul Mujahideen with chemical weapons to carry out terror strikes in Kashmir, saying audio excerpts intercepted by security agencies had revealed this. However there was never any third party confirmation of these accusations.

Experts on chemical weapons say there is reason to worry and these allegations especially when they came from the Pakistan Army should not be brushed aside.

“It’s a reality that India does not provide access to anyone to verify what their security forces are involved in. We have the example of mass graves which the whole world is aware of now. Initially India had declared that it did not possess chemical weapons. But when it was forced to accede to the CWC it declared its weapons stockpile”, an official from the security establishment tells The News, requesting anonymity.

He added that according to the CWC, if done with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, it is genocide which itself is an international crime and a crime against humanity.

Suspicions linger, and unless Pakistan takes up the issue formally with a world body, India will keep on denying. A formal complaint can lead to inspection of sites, resolutions condemning such practices put in place and even voting rights within the OPCW can be taken away.

Reasons for suspicions against India continue to linger especially in the face of material released by the well-known Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) which has followed developments inside India.

“As far as the Domestic Chemical Capabilities ------ India’s chemical industry comprises a major sector of the Indian economy. Within India, chemical trade creates potential nonproliferation concern”, comments the NTI.

It adds, ”Although it is highly unlikely that India would use this capacity to rebuild a chemical weapons capability, theft of material by terrorist or criminal organisations remains a serious concern. A 2009 report on the “Management of Chemical (Terrorism) Disasters” by the Indian National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) highlighted extensive gaps in the ability of India to prevent and respond to chemical terrorism disasters”.