Pakistan hypocrisy exposed! When Bhutto preached in Goa, Pak trained terrorists killed 5 Indian soldiers
By Anish Kumar | First Published May 5, 2023, 8:11 PM ISTIndian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar minced no words in calling out Islamabad on cross-border terrorism and curbing terror financing.
Pakistan exposed its hypocrisy once again at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers meeting in Goa when the country's foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari resorted to preaching on tackling terrorism. Even though Bhutto called for eradicating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the prevailing ground reality in his country does not resonate with his opinion.
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According to reports, during the Eid celebrations, the internationally-outlawed terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) collected donations for the cause of Kashmir and Palestine, in Peshawar and other cities.
Pakistan thus violated the key redline set by the global anti-terrorist financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) when it removed the nation from the greylist in October last year.
Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar minced no words in calling out Islamabad on cross-border terrorism and curbing terror financing. He said, "Victims of terrorism do not sit with perpetrators of terrorism. To come here and preach these hypocritical words is not needed. We are all feeling outraged. On terrorism, Pakistan's credibility is depleting faster than its forex reserves."
Jaishankar said that Bhutto was called out as a promoter, justifier, and spokesperson of the terrorism industry. The minister's scathing remarks came after Bhutto's remark earlier in the day, indirectly urging New Delhi not "to get caught up in weaponising terrorism for diplomatic point-scoring."
Experts believe that the struggling economy of Pakistan and its own suffering from the menace of terrorism was perhaps the reason for Bhutto's changed tone.
"Pakistan’s foreign minister did express the need of addressing terrorism in totality but emphasized that the state actors and non-state actors should not be seen from the same prism. This changed stance is apparent probably due to Pakistan also suffering substantially from terrorism, which has been expanding on each passing day," defence and security analyst Major General Ashok Kumar (Retd) told Asianet Newsable.
Maj Gen Ashok Kumar also said: "Due to state support to multiple terrorist organisations as part of its statecraft earlier and even now, the state remains in a dilemma. On one hand, there is a serious need of improving its overall relations with India with a special focus on trade to look after its struggling population, it has to show capability on the other hand to stem the terrorism which has been active in Jammu & Kashmir as well as inside Pakistan."
It is also pertinent to mention here that while Bhutto was preaching on terror in Goa, terrorists trained on his very soil targeted security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. In the attack, five Indian Army personnel, including para Special Forces, were killed.
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