ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Monday took strong exception to comments by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs implicating Pakistan in the recent attacks in held Kashmir.

“Pakistan rejects the allegations and efforts to malign Pakistan by implicating it in the recent attacks in Indian-held Kashmir,” said foreign office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam, adding that Pakistan also firmly rejects the allegations about “mainstreaming of terrorism”.

Read: 17 dead as militants attack army camp in Indian-held Kashmir

Aslam said Pakistan has been at the forefront of combating terrorism and is its biggest victim.

“If any evidence of mainstreaming of terrorism in India was needed, one only had to look at the perpetrators of Samjohta Express attack and its masterminds,” she remarked.

At least 11 Indian troops and six suspected assailants were killed on Friday when militants attacked an army camp in Indian-held Kashmir.

The region was on a complete lockdown Monday as separatists called for a strike across disputed Kashmir, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to lead a campaign rally for local elections.

The spokeswoman said that Pakistan takes its obligations under the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) mandate seriously, unlike India as manifested by its failure to implement the UNSC resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.

Read: US brushes aside assumptions linking Pakistan to Kashmir violence

“The violence in Indian-held Kashmir is the result of decades of repressive Indian policies and imposition of sham elections in the region,” she said.

Aslam called upon India to understand that the people of Jammu and Kashmir would accept nothing short of their right to self-determination as promised to them by the UNSC and accepted by India and the international community.