ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday categorically rejected the so-called “charge sheet” filed by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) that mischievously attempted to implicate Pakistan in the Pulwama attack in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) last year.

The Foreign Office said the Indian move was designed to divert attention from state terrorism in the IIOJK.

The Pulwama attack had left over 40 Indian soldiers dead in the occupied valley just weeks before the 2019 general elections in India, while the country without any kind of investigation hastened to blame Pakistan only hours after the incident. At that time too, Pakistan had not only rejected the baseless allegations but had also expressed readiness to extend cooperation on the basis of any actionable information.

In the latest statement, FO spokesperson Zahid Chaudhri said: “Pakistan categorically rejects so-called Indian “charge sheet” designed to divert attention from Indian State Terrorism in IIOJK.”

He said that Pakistan categorically rejects the so-called “charge sheet” by India’s National Investigation Agency, which mischievously attem­pts to implicate Pakistan in the Pul­wama attack in the IIOJK last year.

“The fabrications in the reported “charge sheet” are patently designed to further the BJP’s anti-Pakistan rhetoric and its narrow domestic political interests,” the spokesperson said.

He said that Pakistan had expressed readiness to extend cooperation on the basis of any actionable information, but India failed to provide any credible evidence for its invective and instead used the attack for its malicious propaganda campaign against Pakistan.

“The timing of the Pulwama attack, just two months before the Lok Sabha elections in India, and the fact that explosives used in the attack were collected from inside the IIOJK, and the key accused persons in the attack have already been killed by Indian forces, raise too many questions. The world knows well as to who benefited.”

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2020