India sponsoring terror in Pakistan: FO

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday said India and its intelligence agencies "are involved in money-laundering and financial crimes in Pakistan to sponsor terrorism," Geo News reported.

Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, at a weekly press briefing, said the Bharatia Janta Party (BJP) regime had once again revealed the true face of India before the world by pursuing the heinous agenda of "sponsoring terrorism and extremism". He drew the world's attention towards the policies of political leadership of India, which, as the "so-called largest democracy", had been fully exposed. The spokesperson said the situation in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir continues to deteriorate for the last 423 days since the unilateral action of the Indian government to change the valley's special status. He said that last week Indian occupation forces martyred another six Kashmiris in fake encounters and so-called search operations in Pulwama and Anantnag. "India, however, will not be able to succeed in subjugating the Kashmiri people through killings and abductions," he said.

Chaudhri said Pakistan would continue to apprise the world about India's crimes against the Kashmiri people. He said India had escalated tensions along the Line of Control to divert the world's attention from its atrocities in occupied Kashmir. During the current year, India has committed 2,404 ceasefire violations that have claimed 19 lives and seriously injured others, he added.

On Saudi Arabia's permission for Pakistani iqama-holders, he said the Saudi government, on the request of Pakistan, had allowed people to apply for an extension in visa even from its embassy in Islamabad. The process can be initiated after the requisite approval of kafeels, including companies and private persons.

In case of a private person as a kafeel, he said iqamas could be extended through an online website called ''Abshar''. The Saudi authorities have also cleared 47 out of 118 PIA flights for the month of October, the spokesperson said.