Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's 'uncivilised' attacks on Modi new low, even for Pakistan: India

The Ministry of External Affairs said 'Make in Pakistan' terrorism has to stop

India on Friday fumed over Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s personal attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

New Delhi stated that Pakistan needed to change its own mindset or it would remain a pariah.

After Zardari called Modi “the butcher of Gujarat" during a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, India condemned the statement calling it “a new low even for Pakistan”. New Delhi also reminded Islamabad that the Pakistani Foreign Minister had chosen to make the comment against the Prime Minister of India on the anniversary of the crushing defeat his country’s armed forces had experienced in the 1971 war, which had led to the creation of Bangladesh.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party staged a protest in front of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi. The party also decided to launch a nationwide stir to protest Zardari’s comment against Modi.

Also read: BJP workers protest outside Pakistan High Commission in Delhi against Bilawal Bhutto's remarks on Modi

“Osama bin Laden is dead, [but] the Butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the prime minister of India,” Zardari said, responding to a statement made by his counterpart and the External Affairs Minister of India, S Jaishankar, at the UN headquarters itself. “He (Narendra Modi) was banned from entering this country (the United States). These are the prime minister and foreign minister of (the) RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), which draws inspiration from Hitler’s SS,” added the foreign minister of Pakistan.

Zardari was apparently referring to the 2002 communal clashes in Gujarat when Modi was the chief minister of the western state of India. He also reiterated the allegation earlier made by Pakistan about India’s "role" in orchestrating terror attacks in that country, particularly the one in front of the residence of the Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed’s residence in Lahore last year.

Jaishankar had earlier called Pakistan an "epicentre of terrorism" and not-so-subtly reminded that it was at Abbottabad in Pakistan that the Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had been hiding for years till being killed by the US commandos.

“The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has obviously forgotten this day in 1971, which was a direct result of the genocide unleashed by Pakistani rulers against ethnic Bengalis and Hindus (in East Pakistan). Unfortunately, Pakistan does not seem to have changed much in the treatment of its minorities. It certainly lacks credentials to cast aspersions at India,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

He said that Pakistan’s "indisputable role" in sponsoring, harbouring, and actively financing terrorist and terrorist organisations targetting India and other nations remained under the scanner. “Pakistan Foreign Minster’s uncivilised outburst seems to be a result of Pakistan’s increasing inability to use terrorists and their proxies,” added the MEA spokesperson.

“Pakistan is a country that glorifies Osama bin Laden as a martyr, and shelters terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim. No other country can boast having 126 UN-designated terrorists and 27 UN-designated terrorist entities!”

The UN headquarters witnessed a war of words between India and Pakistan over the past two days.

Jaishankar tacitly hit out at China for "shielding" terrorists based in Pakistan from the UN sanctions during an open debate on 'Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism' at the UN Security Council on Wednesday. He chaired the debate, which was held as one of the signature events of India’s month-long presidency of the UNSC. India’s two-year-term as a non-permanent member of the council will come to its end on December 31 next.

Though Pakistan is not currently a member of the Security Council, it was allowed to attend the debate, which was open to all the UN member states.

Zardari called upon the UNSC to implement its resolutions on the dispute over Kashmir and deliver upon its commitment to bring in peace in the region. This triggered a tacit but firm riposte from Jaishankar.

New Delhi on Thursday drew the attention of the UNSC to cross-border terrorism emanating from its western neighbourhood with the testimony of nurse Anjali Kulhe, who had saved 20 pregnant women in a hospital during the November 26-28, 2008 attacks in Mumbai by the 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, who had sneaked into India from Pakistan. “Her testimony is a stark reminder to the Council and the international community that justice is yet to be delivered to the victims of several terrorist incidents, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks,” Jaishankar said at a UNSC briefing on 'Global Counter terrorism Approach: Challenges and Way Forward'.

Islamabad, however, sought to turn the table on New Delhi by continuing the propaganda alleging India’s role in orchestrating terrorist strikes in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, Asad Majeed Khan, also briefed the foreign diplomats based in Islamabad about New Delhi’s alleged role in terrorist strikes in his country. The officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan on Wednesday shared a dossier with the foreign diplomatic missions based in Islamabad. They claimed that the dossier contained evidences of India’s role in terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

“If you keep snakes in your backyard, you cannot expect they will bite only your neighbours,” Jaishankar on Thursday said reacting to Islamabad’s allegations against New Delhi, recalling what the then United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, had said during her visit to Pakistan in October 2011.

“Cities like New York, Mumbai, Pulwama, Pathankot and London are among the many that bear the scars of Pakistan-sponsored, supported and instigated terrorism. This violence has emanated from their Special Terrorist Zones and exported to all parts of the world. "Make in Pakistan” terrorism has to stop,” the MEA spokesperson said in New Delhi on Friday.