Pakistan Army responds to Indian military chief's 'epicenter of terrorism' statement

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Army on Wednesday slammed Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi for his remarks calling Pakistan the ‘epicenter of terrorism’ and termed the same as an attempt to deflect world’s attention from India’s brutality in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a strongly-worded response.

“Insinuating Pakistan as the epi-center of terrorism by the Indian Army Chief, is not only contrary to facts, but also an exercise in futility to beat the dead horse of India’s default position – blaming Pakistan for indigenous reaction to state-sponsored brutality. It is a classic case of extreme duplicity,” the Pakistan army’s media wing said.

It added that the remarks are an attempt to deflect world’s attention from India’s brutality in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK), repression of minorities internally, and India’s trans-national repression.

“The General Officer, in his earlier stint in llOJK personally oversaw the most brutal repression of Kashmiris. Such politically motivated and fallacious statements reflect the extreme politicization of Indian Army. The world is witness to the India’s hate-speech conclaves that provoke genocide against Muslims.”

The Pakistan army’s media wing added that international community is not oblivious to India’s trans-national assassinations, and Indian Security Forces’ oppressive use of force against innocent civilians and gross human rights violations against unarmed Kashmiris.

“Such oppression has only served to strengthen the resolve of Kashmiris for their right of self-determination, enshrined in the UN Security Council Resolutions. Instead of trying to conjure up a non-existent terror infrastructure in Pakistan, it would be wise not to indulge in self-delusion, and appreciate the ground reality. The sobering fact that a senior serving Indian military officer is in Pakistan’s custody, caught red-handed while orchestrating acts of terror against innocent civilians inside Pakistan, seems to have been conveniently ignored by the General.”

The ISPR’s statement went to read that, “Pakistan takes strong exception to such baseless and unfounded statements. Empathizing with the victims of Indian Army’s brutality, it is hoped that civility, professionalism, and norms of state-to-state behaviour would guide the conduct of Indian Army’s leadership, rather than pandering to political exigencies.”