'Obviously delirious': India says Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif using blast allegation to hide Asim Munir’s power grab

The Sharif government has come under attack from Pakistan's opposition parties after it brought in a Constitutional amendment to create a new post of chief of defence forces.

New Delhi: After Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif blamed India for the explosion at the entrance of a judicial complex in Islamabad, New Delhi not only called him ‘obviously delirious’, but also accused him of trying to cover up the power grab in his country by the military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.

New Delhi has rejected the allegation about its role in the explosion in Islamabad. but also accused Shehbaz Sharif and his ministers of trying to cover up the constitutional subversion and power grab by the military in Pakistan, making a not-so-veiled reference to the proposed 27th amendment to the neighbouring country’s constitution. The amendment, already passed by the Senate of the bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, will give Munir absolute control over not only the army, but also the navy and the air force.

The blast in front of a judicial complex housing the Islamabad District Court in the national capital of Pakistan on Tuesday killed at least 12 people, including several lawyers. The incident took place just a day after 10 people had been killed in an explosion in front of the Red Fort in New Delhi.

“These attacks are a continuation of India’s state-sponsored terrorism aimed at destabilizing Pakistan,” Sharif said, vowing to continue the war against terrorism until the elimination of the last terrorists of the ‘Fitna-e-Hindustan’ and ‘Fitna-e-Khawarij’ – the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He alleged that the terror strikes in Pakistan were being carried out from Afghanistan with the ‘patronage’ of India.

“India unequivocally rejects the baseless and unfounded allegations being made by an obviously delirious Pakistani leadership,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, said. “It is a predictable tactic by Pakistan to concoct false narratives against India in order to deflect the attention of its own public from the ongoing military-inspired constitutional subversion and power-grab unfolding within the country.”

“The international community is well aware of the reality and will not be misled by Pakistan’s desperate diversionary ploys,” the MEA spokesperson in New Delhi added, while reacting to the allegation from Islamabad.

Islamabad has been blaming the Taliban regime in Kabul of allowing the TTP terrorists to have bases in and operate from Afghanistan to trigger terrorist attacks in Pakistan. India has also been accused by Pakistan for a long time of orchestrating unrest in Balochistan.

Munir was accused by New Delhi of provoking the April 22 carnage at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir with an incendiary speech just a few days before. He was elevated to the rank of Field Marshal by Sharif's government in Islamabad after the May 7-10 cross-border military flare-up between India and Pakistan.