Imran Khan is Voicing Pakistan Army’s Line on Terror: India

Also read - Full Text of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement below

By Onkareshwar Pandey 

Indian Observer Post

New Delhi, February 19, 2019: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s first statement after the Pulwama terror attack has no takers in India. “The Indian government had accused Pakistan without any evidence or thought. If Pakistan was holding such an important visit (of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman), then why would it need to carry out any terror attack, Pakistan PM Imran Khan said on Tuesday..

"Why will Pakistan engage in terrorism? What purpose will this serve? What advantage does it have for us? Pakistan has suffered the most in the war against terror," said Imran Khan.

He was responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stern warning of a "crushing response" to the suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 41 people and was the deadliest in the divided region's volatile history.

Placing the blame for Pulwama Attack squarely on neighboring Pakistan, which India, with the backing of the United States, accuses of supporting rebels, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had categorically said, “If the neighboring country thinks such terror attacks can weaken us, but their plans will not materialize," he said on last Friday, adding that government forces have been "given total freedom" to deal with the culprits and perpetrators.

Trashing Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s Television statement that was directly addressed to India that India had no evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the Pulwama terror attack, India on Tuesday said, “it was not surprised that Islamabad refused to acknowledge the attack as an act of terrorism and demanded that Pakistan take “credible and visible action” against its perpetrators.”

“We are not surprised that Pakistan PM refuses to acknowledge the attack on our security forces in Pulwama as an act of terrorism. Prime Minister of Pakistan has neither chosen to condemn this heinous act nor condoled,” the Ministry of External Affairs said, hours after Khan ruled out his country’s involvement in the deadly Pulwama Terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

Imran Khan expressed no sympathy for the victims of the Pulwama attack or their families, and repeated the points that have long been part of the boilerplate Pakistani reaction to every criticism — from India or the United States — of its role in the promotion of international terrorism: that it is itself the world’s biggest victim of terror and has nothing to gain from supporting terrorists; that those who accuse it do so without evidence; and that making Pakistan the scapegoat is India’s default way to duck any debate on Kashmir.

Pak Pm said, “Pakistan has suffered the most due to terrorism — 70,000 Pakistanis have died due to terrorism, we have suffered a loss of more than 100 million dollars.”

Meanwhile, reacting sharply on Pak PM Imran Khan’s statement, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh also questioned “if New Delhi should send the dead bodies of soldiers as proof?”

“What proof is he talking about, should we take the bodies there? Masood Azhar is in Pakistan and doing things from there, and everyone knows it. Every day our soldiers are being killed at the Line of Control – so who’s killing them?” asked Amarinder, declaring that the entire world knew of Pakistan's wrongdoing in Kashmir and other parts of the world.

“The Indian government is stuck in the past. It is using the same old rhetoric of blaming Pakistan for everything. You need to move ahead. I have said time and again that this is the new Pakistan," Pak PM said adding. "It is not in our interest for our soil to be used for terrorism."

Showing his governments ignorance about the involvement of any Terrorists from his soil, Pakistan PM Imran Khan said, "If you have intelligence reports that Pakistan was involved in the attack, then share it with us. We will take an action against the person involved."

Saying that “military solution never solved anything as was evident in the case of Afghanistan,” Pak PM Imran Khan also remarked that India needed a new mindset. It needed to think about why young people in Kashmir were not afraid of dying. "They need to think if this one-sided oppression is going to work. Shouldn't India think on similar lines?," Pak Pm asked.

However, Indian authorities have rejected his statement saying, “Pakistan Prime Minister’s statement was essentially an echo of the Pakistan Army’s line on terrorism against India and indicated the current close alignment of the civilian government with the military in that country.”

Pointing out that even in the Pathankot blast, a Pakistani grenade was used, which clearly exposed their involvement, Captain Amarinder said, “The entire world knows that they (Pakistan) were behind 26/11 and India gave all the proof to them, but they did nothing.”

Surprisingly, Imran Khan did not mention Masood Azhar and the Jaish-e-Muhammad, even though the terrorist organisation has itself claimed credit for the attack. He offered help with the “investigation”, provided India is able to hand over “actionable intelligence”. And he asked India to “introspect” on its Kashmir policy.

At one side, Pak PM said that Pakistan was willing to discuss terrorism with India, saying- “India always has a precondition of discussing terrorism. I am telling you that we are ready to talk about terrorism. Terrorism is an issue of the entire region and we want it to end.”

But on another side, he also threatened to “retaliate” if India attacked Pakistan. “If you think you would launch any attack on Pakistan and we would not think of retaliating, Pakistan will retaliate. Pakistan would not have any other choice but to give an answer,” Pak Pm said.

Full text of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement:

“A few days ago, Pulwama was attacked, I should have responded immediately as Pakistan was blamed for it. However, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was visiting, and an investment conference was under way, for which we prepared a lot. I decided not to respond then as the attention would have been diverted from the visit. Therefore, now that the Crown Prince has left, I have decided to respond.

This is a response for the Indian government: First, you have blamed Pakistan for the attack without any evidence, without even a thought as to how Pakistan would gain from it.

Would Pakistan, currently hosting such an important conference, that we have been planning for so long, would anyone, even a fool, do this which would result in a sabotage of such an important conference? Even if the prince’s visit was not planned, how would have Pakistan benefited from it? When Pakistan is moving towards stability, we have seen 15 years of terrorism in which 70,000 Pakistanis have been killed.. Terrorism is on the decline.. Peace is on the horizon… why would we attack, how do we benefit?

I also want to ask India’s Prime Minister — if you are stuck in the past… whenever there’s an incident in Kashmir, you blame Pakistan. Instead of starting a dialogue to resolve the issue in Kashmir, you have made Pakistan the whipping boy. I have repeatedly said that this is the new Pakistan with a new mindset and a new thought process.

It is in our interest that we don’t want anyone from outside to spread terrorism in our country or any of our men spreading terrorism in another country. We want stability. So today I am offering the Indian government that they if they want to do any sort of investigation to probe Pakistani involvement in this, we are ready. If you have any actionable intelligence that a Pakistani was involved, give that information to us. I guarantee that I will take action. We won’t take this action because we feel pressured, we’ll do this because you are making an enemy of Pakistan. If somebody is using Pakistan’s land for terrorism, it’s against our interest.

Secondly, whenever we ask India to start a dialogue between the countries, India always has a precondition of discussing terrorism. I am telling you that we are ready to talk about terrorism. Terrorism is an issue of the entire region and we want it to end. Pakistan has suffered the most due to terrorism- 70,000 Pakistanis have died due to terrorism, we have suffered a loss of more than 100 million dollars. We are ready to talk to you.

Lastly I will say two things – There should be a new thought process in India.  India should introspect, why the Kashmiri youth have reached a stage where they don’t fear death anymore. There must be some  reason. Do you think one-dimensional oppression, torture and resolving issues through military is the solution? Do you think if it hasn’t worked till now, would it work in the future?

If after 17 years the world has realised that military is not the solution in Afghanistan and only dialogue would resolve issues, should India also not discuss this?

We are listening through Indian media where politicians are shouting that Pakistan should be taught a lesson, revenge should be taken and the attack should be avenged- Which law in the world gives power to an individual or a nation and permit them to become a judge, a jury and executioner? What justice system is this? It is your election year and we understand that during elections you will get a boost to teach Pakistan a lesson. If you think, you would launch any attack on Pakistan and we would not think of retaliating, Pakistan will retaliate.

Pakistan would not have any other choice but to give an answer. We know it is easy to start a war. It is in the hands of humans to start a war, however, to end the war isn’t in our hands. In which direction this will go, Allah knows better. Therefore, I hope better sense will prevail, we will use our intelligence and wisdom. We hope that like Afghanistan, this issue will also be resolved through dialogue.”

Video Courtesy - The Info Teacher​​​​​​​