Pahalgam terror attack | Pakistan PM Sharif says ready to join 'neutral, transparent' probe

Shehbaz Sharif said that India’s latest moves against Pakistan reflected a 'pattern of exploitation, levelling baseless allegations and false accusations without credible investigation or verifiable evidence.'

New Delhi: Islamabad is open to participating in any neutral investigation into the April 22 carnage near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday, in the wake of a series of measures New Delhi initiated in response to the latest manifestation of cross-border terrorism against India.

Sharif alleged that New Delhi once again resorted to the “blame game” against Islamabad after the killing of 26 people at Baisaran Meadow near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that India’s latest moves against Pakistan reflected a “pattern of exploitation, levelling baseless allegations and false accusations without credible investigation or verifiable evidence”.

He said that India’s “perpetual blame game” against Pakistan must “come to a grinding halt”.

“Continuing with its role as a responsible country, Pakistan is open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation.”

New Delhi had only once in the past allowed Islamabad to take part in a probe into a terror attack in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had in March 2016 allowed a team of investigators from Pakistan to visit the scenes of attacks that the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists had carried out inside the airbase at Pathankot in India.

The officials of India’s National Investigation Agency had accompanied the investigators from Pakistan during the tour to the Indian Air Force base.

The exercise, however, had not resulted in any meaningful action by Pakistan against the terrorist organisations known for carrying out attacks in India. The Indian Army, later on September 26 that year, carried out its first publicly acknowledged “surgical strikes” on the camps of the terrorists in the areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan

India responded to the latest carnage in J&K by putting in abeyance its 65-year-old Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan, shutting down the Integrated Check Post at Attari-Wagah border between the two countries, and further downgrading bilateral relations.

New Delhi also moved to expel Pakistan’s three military officers posted as diplomats at its high commission in the capital of India.

India also moved to revoke all visas issued to the citizens of Pakistan.

“Water is a vital national interest of Pakistan, our lifeline. Let there be no doubt at all [that] its availability will be safeguarded at all costs and under all circumstances,” Sharif said, adding: “Therefore, any attempt to stop, reduce or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty would be responded to with full force and might. Nobody should remain under any kind of false impression and confusion.”

He was speaking at the Pakistan Military Academy at Abbottabad.

Islamabad earlier said that any move by New Delhi to divert or stop the water of the Indus River System from flowing into Pakistan would be deemed as “an act of war” by India.

Sharif’s government in Islamabad had also retaliated by putting in abeyance Pakistan’s 1972 Simla Agreement with India as well as other bilateral pacts.

“Our valiant armed forces remain fully capable and prepared to defend the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity against any misadventures, as clearly demonstrated by our measured yet resolute response to India’s reckless incursion in February 2019,” said the prime minister of Pakistan. He was referring to the escalation of tension after India’s February 26, 2019, airstrikes into terror camps at Balakot deep inside Pakistan following the terror strike at Pulwama in J&K.