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Friday March 29, 2024

Pakistan welcomes Mukherjee’s statement on Babri Masjid demolition

By Mariana Baabar
February 05, 2016

ISLAMABAD: The Muslims the world over were vindicated lately when India’s non-Muslim President Pranab Mukherjee in his memoirs described demolition of Babri Masjid by the Hindus as a matter of national shame and politically motivated.

“We respect the views of the President of India in this regard. We believe all places of religious worship should be respected and protected”, Foreign Office spokesman responded to a query at the weekly media briefing here on Thursday.

On Thursday Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of Afghanistan, told a conference in New Delhi that Kabul had no desire to keep India out of talks with the Afghan  Taliban, but countries involved at present had influence on the Taliban or on the situation.

Pakistan’s says it expects Afghanistan would not allow its territory to be used against Pakistan.On allegations of India’s involvement through Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan, the spokesman was reminded of a statement by US General McCrystal who in 2009 and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel publicly stated in 2013 that India financed terrorism and instability in Pakistan.

Lately, Hakimullah Mehsud’s aide Latif revealed that India and Afghanistan jointly direct terrorism in Pakistan.Was the government also tempted to take up this issue with the UN?The spokesman responded: “I wish to underscore that, dossiers on India’s involvement in fomenting terrorism in Pakistan have already been shared with the US and the UN. Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed not to allow their respective territories to be used against each other. We expect that this commitment will be honored”.

As Kashmir Day is being observed today, the spokesman pointed to the continued violation of human rights and brutalization of Kashmiris in the Indian Held Kashmir.“Pakistan has always condemned these atrocities. Kashmir Solidarity Day, to be observed tomorrow, reminds us of the Indian atrocities and the need for Kashmir dispute to be resolved in accordance with the UN Security Council  Resolutions and aspirations of the people of Kashmir”, he said.

Meanwhile in the valley there was a strong reaction from Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani to a statement from Pakistan’s parliamentary committee which had recommended that Islamabad should avoid encouraging the Kashmiri Mujahideen on Pakistan soil and take action against them.

“If Pakistan will act on these recommendations and take any action against the Kashmiri youth, it will be the follow-up of American policies in Afghanistan. America at first projected the Afghan and Arab youth as Mujahideen and used them against the Soviet Union and when America finished its work, the same Mujahideen were slapped with terrorist labels and dragged to Guantanamo and Abu Gharib jails,” said Geelani.

He claimed that Kashmiri youth opted for the armed struggle “to fight the rigid and stubborn policy of India.”On India’s insistence that one of its citizens Dawood Ibrahim wanted for crimes in his home country be handed over, the spokesman replied, “Let me reiterate that he has no presence in Pakistan. You may be aware that Indian authorities have admitted at the ministerial level that Dawood Ibrahim’s whereabouts were not known to them”.