MEA: Pakistani Claims of Indian Involvement in Balochistan Attacks ‘Tactics to Deflect Attention’
New Delhi: India on Sunday (February 1) “categorically” rejected Pakistani authorities' claims of Indian involvement in yesterday's coordinated militant attacks in Balochistan – where at least 33 civilians and security personnel were killed – as “tactics to deflect attention” from Pakistan's “own internal failings”.
“Instead of parroting frivolous claims each time there is a violent incident,” said external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, Islamabad “would do better to focus on addressing [the] long-standing demands of its people in the region”.
Pakistan's record of “suppression, brutality and violation of human rights is well known”, Jaiswal added in his statement.
In their suicide and gun attacks carried out across Balochistan on Saturday, Baloch insurgents targeted civilians, a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations, with the Pakistani military saying that 18 civilians – including women, children and the elderly – and 15 security personnel were killed.
The attacks that were carried out almost simultaneously involved militants dressed as civilians going into hospitals, schools, banks and markets before opening fire, Reuters cited junior interior minister Talal Chaudhry as saying.
Later the banned Baloch Liberation Army insurgent outfit claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Pakistan's military said on Sunday that security personnel had killed 92 insurgents, including three suicide bombers. Earlier on Saturday they had slain 41 militants, the armed forces' spokesperson added.
He called the insurgents behind Saturday's attacks ‘Fitna al Hindustan’, which is the Pakistani government and the military's term for Baloch militants that they use to allege Indian backing to the militants.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi too blamed India for Saturday's attacks at a press conference.
“The most important thing that is necessary for the world to know now is that these terrorists are not normal terrorists. India is behind those attacks,” Naqvi said, going on to accuse India of planning the attacks and providing financial support to militants. Other Pakistani officials also alleged Indian involvement in the attacks.
Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, told the Associated Press that the “terrorists linked to BLA or other groups had never before been killed in such a large number in a single day” in Balochistan.
Baloch separatist groups and the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, have intensified attacks in Pakistan in recent months. The TTP is a separate group but allied with Afghanistan's Taliban, who returned to power in August 2021.
Balochistan has long been the site of an insurgency by separatist groups seeking independence from Pakistan's federal government in Islamabad.
With inputs from AP.
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