Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Thursday reiterated that the Haqqani Network operates from Afghanistan, not Pakistan.

His statement came a day after US Senator John McCain said that the US should change its ‘behaviour’ towards Pakistan if the latter "does not stop supporting the terrorist network".

During his weekly briefing, the FO spokesperson claimed that the Taliban and other terrorist outfits have been eliminated from Pakistan and that those surviving are functioning from Afghanistan. He also pointed out that most Haqqani leaders had been killed in Afghanistan.

During his briefing, Zakaria also rubbished resurgent claims from India of having carried out surgical strikes on Pakistani territory in the past, saying it revealed India’s lack of commitment to resolve conflicts between the two nations.

Condemning the bloodshed by the Indian army in India-held Kashmir, he urged the international community to stand against India’s inhumane treatment of Kashmiris.

The FO spokesperson also said that reports of India’s use of chemical weapons in India-held Kashmir must be investigated.

He also welcomed the statement of Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who recently urged the Iranian judiciary to formulate a stance on Kashmir and called for Muslim countries to stand against human rights violations by India in India-held Kashmir.