Pakistan rejects Indian criticism of FM Bilawal’s remarks against Modi

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday rejected the Indian Ministry of External Affairs statement issued on Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a “reflection of India’s growing frustration over its failure in maligning and isolating Pakistan”.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had called described Modi as the “butcher of Gujarat” while responding to terror allegations levelled by his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at the United Nations.

“I want to tell India that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the Prime Minister of India,” Bhutto had said while responding to Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Jaishankar’s remarks.

The foreign minister had said that Indian government does not believe in Gandhi’s ideology but believes in the ideology of his killers.

Retorting to the statement today, FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said: “The Indian Government has tried to hide behind subterfuge and canard to conceal the realities of the 2002 Gujarat massacre. It is a shameful story of a mass killings, lynching, rape and plunder. The fact of the matter is that the masterminds of the Gujarat massacre have escaped justice and now hold key government positions in India.”

“No verbosity can hide the crimes of the Saffron terrorists in India. Hindutva, the political ideology of the ruling party, has given rise to a climate of hate, divisiveness and impunity,” the FO spokesperson stressed.

Read More: ‘BUTCHER OF GUJARAT’ HAS BECOME INDIA’S PM, SAYS FM BILAWAL BHUTTO

She went on to say that the culture of impunity was “deeply embedded” in the Hindutva-driven polity in India.

“The acquittal of the mastermind and perpetrators of the heinous attack on Delhi-Lahore Samjhota Express, that killed 40 Pakistani nationals on Indian soil, demonstrates the massacre of justice under the RSS-BJP dispensation,” the statement continued.

She pointed out that while “India peddled a fictitious narrative of victimhood, the country itself was a perpetrator of repression in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and a sponsor and financier of terrorist groups in South Asia.”

“Only this week, a dossier was released containing irrefutable evidence that substantiated India’s involvement in the 2021 terrorist attack in a peaceful Lahore neighbourhood. The evidence gathered with international support confirms that the Lahore attack was instigated, planned and financed by the Indian state,” she said.

“After being unable to prevent Pakistan’s exit from FATF Grey List in October and international recognition of Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts, India is desperately using international platforms to advance its agenda to defame and target Pakistan,” Baloch said.

She went on to say that India is following a policy of pettiness towards its neighbours. “We are confident that the international community would look through this facade and the dream of RSS-BJP to turn South Asia in its image will remain unrealized,” the FO spokesperson concluded in a statement.