Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has dubbed Pakistani President Bilawal Bhutto Zardari the “promoter, justifier, and spokesperson of a terrorism industry.”
“Victims of terrorism do not sit together with its perpetrators to discuss terrorism,” Mr. Jaishankar said after a meeting of foreign ministers of the member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa.
“Bilawal Bhutto Zardari came as Foreign Minister of a SCO member state; that’s part of multilateral diplomacy and we don’t see anything more than that,” Mr S Jaishankar said.
The two foreign ministers did not hold a bilateral at the SCO meeting.
“On terrorism, Pakistan’s credibility is depleting even faster than its forex reserves,” Mr. Jaishankar said in a clear swipe at Pakistan’s struggle with a huge financial crisis that has forced the country to knock from door to door for loans.
Mr. Jaishankar’s comments come on a day when five Indian Army soldiers were killed in action during an operation to find terrorists hiding in a forest near Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch. The terrorists, suspected to be Pakistanis, had ambushed an army truck last week, killing five other soldiers.
India has repeatedly demonstrated Pakistan’s direct involvement in backing terrorism on its soil in order to arm and send terrorists to Jammu and Kashmir. Masood Azhar, the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks, and many more are all in Pakistan.
Mr. Zardari, the son of Pakistan’s killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is the country’s first Foreign Minister to visit India in nearly a decade. Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited India in 2011. Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s last minister-level visit, took place in 2016.
At the SCO meeting, Mr. Jaishankar called for united efforts to fight terrorism. He said taking eyes off terrorism would be bad for the SCO.
“We must not allow anybody – individual or state – to hide behind non-state actors… While the world was engaged in facing Covid and its consequences, the menace of terrorism continued unabated. Taking our eyes off this menace would be detrimental to our security interests,” Mr Jaishankar said.
Also read: Bilawal to become first FM to visit India in over a decade
