Pakistan tells world: India may stage another false flag operation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has warned the international community of a real threat of India staging another false flag operation. A spokesman at the Foreign Office said during the weekly media briefing on Thursday: "We are also concerned and we are continuing to alert the international community about India’s track record.

“There is a real possibility that India might stage another false flag operation to complicate the current situation. So we continue to alert our friends in the international community about this prospect," he added.

The spokesman said Pakistan was committed to pursuing ‘meaningful’ dialogue with India for peaceful resolution of all outstanding disputes, including Jammu and Kashmir, but the onus was, however, on India to create an enabling environment, conducive for dialogue, but regretted that there was novisible change in India's "hostile attitude and negative behaviour”.

In the meantime, “Pakistan calls on India to forthwith halt its tyranny in the IIOJK, renounce its campaign of persecution of Kashmiris, and let them exercise their right to self-determination as promised to them under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”

While asking the international community to hold New Delhi accountable for the egregious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, the spokesman said, "India must allow unhindered access to international human rights and humanitarian organisations and UN special mandate holders to conduct independent investigations in IIOJK”.

Later, the spokesman ‘categorically rejected’ the Indian army chief’s “fallacious comments” made at a press conference, insinuating the presence of so-called “launch pads” and “training” camps across the Line of Control (LoC).

For nearly a year now, since both Pakistan and India agreed to ceasefire at the LoC, it is still holding. There is nothing new about the Indian general’s unfounded allegations, as these are part of the malicious anti-Pakistan propaganda being pedalled by the BJP-RSS combine at the helm in India. The Indian government is driven by its belligerent and expansionist agenda embedded in the delusional notion of “Akhand Bharat”, which poses a grave threat to regional peace”, he responded.

The Indian army chief, he added, made a desperate attempt at diverting global attention from India’s state-terrorism and egregious human rights violations, which continue unabated in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

The spokesman also mentioned what he said was the "despicable harassment and insult of Muslim women in India through purpose-built online application".

"This obnoxious and repugnant act is the newest low in the violent streak of hate attacks and targeting of minorities with impunity overseen by the BJP-RSS extremist dispensation under which space for minorities is continuously shrinking in India," he said.

He added that the "deafening silence" of the BJP leadership and the absence of discernible action against Hindutva proponents openly calling for genocide of Muslims should “set alarm bells ringing across the international community”.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan will attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics at the invitation of Chinese leadership from February 3 to 5. He will be expressing solidarity with Beijing at a time when a diplomatic boycott has been decided by the United States, Britain, Australia, North Korea and Canada and no dignitary will attend.

“During his visit, he will hold important meetings with China’s top leadership. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), strategic cooperation between the two countries, bilateral ties, trade and other issues will be discussed during the meetings, the spokesperson said.

Earlier, the Foreign Office said that the joint statement by the P-5 on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races is a positive development. “This understanding among the permanent members of the UN Security Council can pave the way for concrete measures for strategic stability at the global and regional levels”, said the FO.

Pakistan, as a responsible nuclear weapons state, said it supported the objectives of global and non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, in line with the stipulations of the First Special Session on Disarmament of the UN General Assembly (SSOD-I) – with equal and undiminished security being the defining consideration.

“The P-5 statement rightly acknowledges the imperative of creating conducive security environment for meaningful progress on nuclear disarmament.

This will include addressing the underlying security concerns of States, pacific settlement of outstanding disputes, and cessation of destabilizing arms build ups that accentuate asymmetries”, it added.

In the context of South Asia, Pakistan reminded its proposal for a Strategic Restraint Regime, encompassing nuclear and missile restraint, conventional balance and settlement of disputes, can contribute significantly towards maintaining strategic stability and avoiding military conflict. This will also entail eschewing misplaced notions of space for war in a nuclearized environment.