ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Foreign Office on Friday strongly rejected Indian remarks about recent cross-border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, calling them “unfortunate” and a “deliberate mischaracterization of the situation on the ground.”
Responding to comments made a day earlier by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Pakistan’s Foreign Office said New Delhi’s statements were “obviously aimed at sabotaging the efforts currently underway to restore peace and normalcy.”
In his weekly briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made remarks accusing Pakistan of supporting insurgent groups and of blaming its neighbors for internal matters.
He further claimed that Pakistan was “not happy with Afghanistan exercising sovereignty over its own territories,” while asserting India’s “commitment to Afghanistan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.”
Rejecting these assertions, Foreign Office Spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan said the Indian remarks “reflect a deliberate attempt to distort facts and misrepresent the situation.”
“India's baleful influence on South Asia and its negative role in destabilizing the entire region are well known,” Khan said. “Pakistan’s actions are guided solely by considerations of its security and undertaken in self-defense against unprovoked and destabilizing activities along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.”
He emphasized that India was “in no position to cast aspersions on others, given its own well-documented record of involvement in acts of terrorism and extraterritorial assassinations in Pakistan and beyond.”
“Its claims of respecting Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity ring hollow in light of its persistent interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” he added.
Last week, Afghan Taliban and allied militants launched unprovoked attacks along the border to facilitate the infiltration of Khawarij formations, a term Islamabad uses for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan Army troops responded with artillery, tanks, and air assets, targeting Afghan military posts and militant hideouts. The military identified Fitna al-Khawarij, TTP, and Fitna al-Hindustan, a term referring to Indian-backed proxies, as the main instigators.
The cross-border violence left over 200 attackers dead, while 23 Pakistani soldiers were martyred, according to the ISPR.
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