Pakistan should be the last country to lecture India on plurality: MEA

January 11, 2019 16:02

India slammed Pakistan on Friday for its statement that New Delhi was not responding to its peace overtures, saying there was "no seriousness" in Islamabad's offer for talks as it continued to extend "explicit support" to terror organisations and was now trying to mainstream them.

India's sharp reaction comes days after Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan accused it of not responding to his peace overtures.

Responding to Khan's comments, ministry of external affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "I don't understand these statements. Even before Imran Khan became Prime Minister, our Prime Minister had called and congratulated him on his election win."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj also wrote to their counterparts and congratulated them after they assumed office, he said at a media briefing.

Kumar also posed questions to Pakistan to hit out at the country for supporting terrorism and allowing terrorists to use its soil for targeting other nations.

"When they say they are ready for talks, then why do their ministers share platform with internationally designated terrorists. There have been many instances in the past few months when their ministers have shared a platform with such people," Kumar said.

He cited some instances such as Pakistan's religious affairs minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri sharing a public platform with Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed on September 30 where both of them made "vitriolic" anti-India statements and the terror organisation opening centres in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In December, Pakistan's interior minister met representatives of the JuD terrorist organisation and openly pledged support to them, Kumar said.

On Khan's statement on treatment of minorities in India, Kumar said, "Pakistan should be the last country in the world to lecture us on the topic of plurality and inclusive society. We and the world are fully aware how the minorities are treated in their country." -- PTI

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