RAWALPINDI: Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar on Thursday said the dossier presented by Pakistan would be flagged at all global forums to highlight Indian state-sponsored terrorism on its territory.

The dossier brought forward the proof of India as a state sponsoring terrorism, vindicating what Pakistan had been saying for a long time, the military spokesman said in an interview with Global Village Space, an international media outlet.

During the interview, the ISPR chief dilated upon diverse security- and defence-related issues linked with regional peace and stability, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Afghan peace process and the situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Major Gen Babar said the world had taken note of the dossier and started discussing it. “Despite a lot of Indian efforts, an objective analysis of the dossier has been started by the global community” and that objectivity was a major plus, he added.

The Foreign Office, he said, had presented the dossier to the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P-5 countries) and the UN secretary general. The latest statement of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (at the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Niger) had endorsed it, he added. “It has been a strongly worded statement of the OIC on what is happening in IIOJK.”

In reply to a question, Major Gen Babar said the CPEC was an economic initiative which was visible from its name. However, he added, Indians were uncomfortable and had very strange arguments about the project.

The ISPR chief underscored that security issues around the CPEC project were increasing. He said the Indian-sponsored terrorists were targeting the Chinese manpower and the locals working on the project.

Regarding terrorist attacks from across the Afghan border on Pakistani soil, the ISPR chief said Pakistan was in regular contact with the Afghan government on the matter.

Major Gen Babar said India was linking the Kashmir freedom movement with terrorism and blaming Pakistan for the so-called infiltration into IIOJK. However, the UN military observer missions and the global missions taken to the LoC [by Pakistan] ruled out any such possibility, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2020