Pakistan plays Jammu and Kashmir tune to Germany; India hits back
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, October 8: Foreign Minister of Germany Annalena Baerbock’s beaming expressions gave ways to a visible scorn when her visiting Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari rushed with the formality to insert Jammu and Kashmir in his remark during a joint presser in Berlin on Friday.
After Baerbock’s effusive remarks, including excessive commiseration over super floods in Pakistan, which ravaged one-third of the country, the young foreign minister rushed to make a mention of Jammu and Kashmir during the joint presser to which he found his German counterpart neither nodding nor interested.
“There are grave human rights violations being committed in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and peace inside South Asia will not be possible without the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute under the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the wishes of the people,” Zardari said in his remarks during which he sought deepening of the economic ties with Germany.
The Ministry of External Affairs in India in a response to the media queries reminded the western world that Pakistan remains a laboratory and godfather of terrorism.
“All serious and conscientious members of the global community have a role and responsibility to call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature,” Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the MEA said on Saturday.
He stressed that “the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has borne the brunt of such a terrorist campaign for decades”. “This continues till now. Foreign nationals have been victims there, as also in other parts of India. The UN Security Council and FATF are still pursuing Pakistan-based terrorists involved in the horrific 26/11 attacks,” added Bagchi.
In an apparent disapproval of the German Foreign Minister heaping praise on Pakistan for its contributions in counter-terrorism efforts, Bagchi said: “When states do not recognise such dangers, either because of self-interest or indifference, they undermine the cause of peace, not promote it. They also do grave injustice to the victims of terrorism.”
India, incidentally, has cut off Pakistan from normal bilateral relations after Islamabad failed to give up the path of nursing terrorists and their exports. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah on Thursday during a rally in Jammu and Kashmir that India would not talk to Pakistan.