India slams Pakistan for evading responsibility for Pulwama terror attack

India shared with Pakistan “enough evidence” of the role of terrorists and terrorist organisations based in the neighbouring country in orchestrating the February 14, 2019 attack on its paramilitary personnel at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in New Delhi on Thursday.

Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said that the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which had claimed responsibility for the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force personnel at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, was based in Pakistan.

“The organisation and its leadership are in Pakistan. It is regrettable that Masood Azhar (the JeM chief), the first accused in the charge-sheet, continues to find shelter in Pakistan,” he told media persons in New Delhi.  “Enough evidence has been shared with Pakistan, but it continues to evade responsibility.”    

Also read: Money put in Pak bank accounts of JeM commander before Pulwama blast: NIA

His comment came a day after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan said that New Delhi had shared with Islamabad some “incomplete, patchy and unsubstantiated” information about the February 14, 2019 terror attack.

The Pakistan Government issued the statement on Wednesday – reacting to the submission of a charge-sheet by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India on the terror attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel. The NIA named Masood Azhar, his brothers Abdul Rauf Asghar and Ammar Alvi, nephew Umar Farooq and several others in the charge-sheet.

Islamabad claimed that India had failed to provide “any credible evidence for its invective” and had “instead been using the attack for its malicious propaganda campaign against Pakistan”.   

“The charge sheet has been filed after investigation of a-year-and-a-half since the attack took place on February 14, 2019. It has been filed to address the act of terrorism and to bring perpetrators of such a heinous crime to justice. Our aim is not to simply issue statements or notifications,” said Srivastava.  

He also noted that the Pakistan Government had not yet taken any credible action against perpetrators of the November 26-28, 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, which resulted in the loss of 165 innocent lives, including 25 foreign nationals.

New Delhi also slammed Islamabad for its flip flop on acknowledging the presence of India’s most wanted terrorist and underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim, in Pakistan. “Pakistan has never taken any credible and verifiable action against terror entities or listed individuals, including the most wanted ones,” said Srivastava.