India, Israel behind hybrid war on Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Tuesday said India and Israel were behind the ongoing hybrid war against Pakistan and its sole objective was to sour relations between Pakistan and China.

He said this while addressing a press conference here, reports Geo News.

The minister said Dasu incident was an attempt to create misunderstandings between Pakistan and China.

Twelve people, including nine Chinese workers and three Pakistanis, were killed on July 14 when a bus carrying workers in Upper Kohistan plunged into a ravine after a mechanical failure resulting in leakage of gas that caused an explosion.

The Chinese workers and the Pakistani staff were proceeding to their workplace for an ongoing project.

“Some world powers don’t want Sino-Pak ties to gain strength. Efforts are being made to give the impression to the world that there is an issue of peace and security in Pakistan,” he said, adding that the pace of this unannounced hybrid war was being accelerated.

The minister said the Chinese government was satisfied with the investigation but India was trying to give it a new angle. He maintained that Imran Khan was emerging as the leader of the Muslim Ummah and India and Israel disliked him too much.

He remarked that the Jauhar town, Lahore explosion occurred a day before the FATF meeting, while the Dasu incident took place a day before the GCC meeting.

“The Afghan ambassador's daughter's alleged kidnapping incident was organised before the Afghan conference. See their timings. All these incidents took place under a conspiracy,” he added.

Sheikh Rashid said the investigation conducted by the authorities had found that the Afghan ambassador's daughter had not been abducted.

“According to our investigation, the incident involving the daughter of the Afghan ambassador is not a case of kidnapping,” he said.

He also opined that Kabul should not have recalled its envoy over a single case.

“The government will fight the case of the daughter of the Afghan ambassador [but] our investigation shows that this was not a kidnapping case,” he said, adding that the girl changed taxis four times and no man sat in any of the taxis during the entire journey.

The interior minister hoped that the Afghan ambassador would become part of the investigation, adding that the government had registered the case herself.

He said the interior ministry had forwarded the footage related to the case to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The minister said the envoy’s daughter used the internet throughout her journey, adding that the men accused of the kidnapping were hard-working taxi drivers.

He said one or two cabbies were government employees and they drove taxis to meet their family expenses.

“They have no criminal record nor was there any other person seated in any of the taxis,” Rashid said.

The minister said the government registered a case of kidnapping for the sake of world.

Reports of the ambassador's daughter being "abducted" and "tortured" surfaced on Saturday, with a statement by the Afghan foreign ministry that the girl was "abducted for several hours" on Friday.

The Foreign Office issued a statement in response saying a thorough probe had been launched and law-enforcement agencies "are trying to trace and apprehend the culprits to be brought to justice".

Meanwhile, the security of the ambassador and his family was "beefed up", according to the statement.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had instructed the interior minister to get to the bottom of the matter within 48 hours. However, the Afghan government recalled its ambassador and senior diplomats from Islamabad citing security concerns.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in a telephonic discussion with his Afghan counterpart on Monday, shared the progress in the kidnapping case and urged him to withdraw the decision to recall the ambassador.