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What will Pakistan accuse India of next?

Last updated on: September 13, 2010 08:01 IST

Image: Pakistani cricket fans pose with a donkey as they hold placards and shout slogans against national players involved in a match fixing scandal in Lahore
Photographs: Reuters

The Pakistani media has blamed India's intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing for the match fixing scandal, claiming that it is a ploy by India to oust Pakistan from international cricket.

A Pakistani newspaper, Daily Mail, claimed that International Cricket Council's chief Sharad Pawar has been working to get the Pakistan team banned for three to five years and the bookie Mazhar Majeed is a RAW man who was introduced to Indian cricket by RAW officials.

Indian authorities are not taking the daily's allegations too seriously, as Pakistan and its media famously blame India for almost anything that goes wrong in their country. And the number of things going wrong in our neighbouring country is almost endless.

Rediff.com takes a look at the many problems and non-issues that Islamabad has tried to make India feel guilty about.

'Pakistan dying of thirst because of India'

Image: Supporters of Jamaat-ud-Dawa participate in an anti-India protest in Lahore
Photographs: Mohsin Raza/Reuters

In January this year, Aseff Ali Sardar, advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, proclaimed that the row over water sharing may trigger another war between the two nations.

Terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa have also blamed India for the growing scarcity of water in Pakistan and declared, 'Muslims dying of thirst would drink the blood of India.'

But Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi admitted that the country's authorities have a tendency to 'pass the buck' and exaggerate differences with India over the sharing of river water. Mismanagement within the country is resulting in the loss of 34 million acre feet of water, he said.

'India fomenting terrorism in Balochistan'

Image: A Pakistani security official stands near a burning vehicle after it was attacked in Balochistan
Photographs: Saeed Ali Achakzai/Reuters

Did they, didn't they?

That is what the international community has often wondered about India's alleged role in supporting the unrest in Pakistan's Balochistan province and tribal areas.

Pakistan has often claimed that it has 'concrete proof' of India's alleged involvement in 'fomenting terrorism' in the restive region, where militants have been waging a freedom struggle for years. 

Prime Minister Gilani has also accused India of 'interference' in Balochistan, but stopped short of directly  accusing it of supporting the armed insurgency in the area.

But the United States, which is turning into the troubled nation's babysitter, spoke up for India. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US does not have any evidence of India's involvement in Balochistan.

'India planned the attack on Lankan cricket team'

Image: Men line-up for the funeral prayer of a victim who was killed during an attack on the Lankan team
Photographs: Ibrar Tanoli/Reuters

On March 3, 2009, six Sri Lankan cricketers and their assistant coach were injured and their security guards were among the eight people killed, when a dozen masked terrorists ambushed the luxury bus ferrying the team to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

The terrorists were armed with rifles, grenades and rocket-launchers. The incident -- the  first ever terror strike in the history of the sport -- sent shockwaves across the world.

Former Inter Services Intelligence chief General (retired) Hameed Gul wasted no time in blaming RAW for planning the 'copycat' attack to avenge the Mumbai terror attack.

Pakistani minister Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol reportedly claimed that the terrorists came from across the India border. He alleged that the attack was a ploy by India to 'defame and isolate Pakistan'.

'India responsible for Pakistan floods'

Image: A family takes refuge on top of a mosque while awaiting rescue in Pakistan's Punjab
Photographs: Reuters

This time, a section of the Pakistani media took their blame-India-for-everything policy too far.

Some of the country's dailies blamed India for the devastating floods, which have soaked one fifth of its land, killed more than 1,500 people and impacted an estimated population of 20 million.

Realising that New Delhi couldn't possibly be blamed for unleashing a natural disaster, the media reports tried to make their allegations credible by claiming that India had intentionally released 18,000 cusec feet of water from a dam in Kashmir, which triggered the second wave of floods in the beleaguered nation.

Some Pakistani dailies and websites continued their India-bashing by slamming the 'puny aid' offered by the neighbouring nation and criticising the government's decision to accept it.

Editor of The Nation daily Shireen Mazar wrote that the government of Pakistan had shown its subservience to the US by accepting aid from India at a time when the people in Kashmir were agitating and "India is targeting Pakistan on false charges again on a regular basis".