ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday categorically rejected the “unwarranted and irresponsible” comments by Indian Defence Minister Rajanth Singh, insinuating that Pakistan and China were deliberately creating border disputes with India.

“The Indian defence minister’s statement demonstrates an inexcusable lack of self-awareness of RSS-BJP regime’s self-serving narrative. It is also another manifestation of the Indian government’s incurable obsession with Pakistan,” the Foreign Office spokesman said in a statement on Monday.

The spokesman said Pakistan also condemns the malicious Indian propaganda against the long-standing, close Pakistan-China friendship. “It is preposterous for a country that is compulsively expansionist and a brazen practitioner of state-terrorism to level charges against others.”

He said the world community was aware that the political opportunism of the RSS-BJP regime was imperiling peace, stability and security of the region. “It is India that not only creates disputes with neighbours but also runs away from peacefully resolving them.”

Rather than jeopardising peace and stability of the region, including by perpetrating state-terrorism as a tool to advance its extremist (Hindutva) ideology and expansionist (Akhand Bharat) designs, India should seriously consider course correction by giving up its aggressive agenda and peacefully resolving disputes with neighbours, the Foreign Office said.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2020