The former foreign minister and PML-N stalwart, Khawaja Asif, on Friday said "our eastern neighbour has crossed a red line through their proxies", while referring to terrorists allegedly operating on Pakistani soil with the "patronage of India".

Asif made these remarks during a television appearance on DawnNewsTV talk show News Wise.

Condemning the "blatant" assault by gunmen in Karachi on the Chinese consulate earlier in the day, the former minister said a "very ominous thing has happened".

Asif said a very big example of this "patronage" is Kulbhushan Jadhav and that the "so-called secessionist movements" in the country also have the same backing whether it comes from people operating within Pakistan or from those residing in Europe or UK.

While lauding the opening of Kartarpur as a positive step, whereby Sikh pilgrims can physically go and pay their respects at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib rather than look at it from afar through binoculars, he regretted that no way has "India's venom scaled down" when it comes to Pakistan.

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He said the biggest element which had been thrown into the mix of political disputes was the inclusion of religion. "Injecting political disputes with a hue of religion has become a fashion," he said.

Asif further commented that whether it was the people of Kashmir or Christians or lower caste Hindus in India itself, adding religion to the equation "for political dividends" had become a habit.

Agreeing with analyst Zahid Hussain on the impact of today's attack because of the message it carried since a consulate (which is considered sovereign territory) was targeted, the former foreign minister remarked that he had tweeted the same views a few hours earlier, and had acknowledged that it was not some random attack but was "very well-organised".

"Our enemies operating through their proxies want to belittle and disparage our success in the war against terror. The attack on Chinese consulate is not a random incident, enemies of CPEC and peace in this region are active to implement their nefarious agenda through [the] likes of Kulbashan Jadhav," he had tweeted.

While remarking that it can not be verified what the identities of the terrorists were, Asif said if the general view was to be believed, which suggested that they belonged to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the fact would confirm his earlier statements since the terrorist outfit "has sponsorship from India".

When asked whether this would have an impact on CPEC, despite the fact that the Chinese had never before been dissuaded from actively pursuing the project even after previous attacks on Chinese workers, Asif remarked: "An attack on an embassy or consulate is symbolically bigger and this time I feel our eastern neighbour has crossed a red line through their proxies".